Jazz Trombonist Jiggs Whigham to Perform Feb. 24

02/20/04

Internationally acclaimed jazz trombonist Jiggs Whigham will give a free concert with members of the Ithaca College Jazz Workshop on Tuesday, February 24. The event will begin at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music.

The program will feature Gershwin's "Embraceable You," Raskin's "Laura," and "America the Beautiful," among many others. In addition to the performance, Whigham will give a master class that is open to the public on Monday, February 23, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Ford Hall.

Whigham began his rise to prominence in the 1960s, when he was the featured soloist with the Kurt Edelhagen Jazz Orchestra at the West German Broadcasting Company in Cologne. Since then he has served as the bandleader of the Swiss Radio Band and the chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Radio Orchestra. He is currently conductor of the BBC Big Band in Great Britain and artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Orchestra.

An educator as well as a performer, Whigham was named professor and head of the jazz department at the Cologne University College of Music in 1979. In 1995 he was named "professor for life" and head of the jazz-popular music department at the Hanns Eisler College of Music in Berlin. He was also a visiting faculty member at Indiana University.

The Ithaca College School of Music offers some 300 free concerts each academic year. More information on these performances is available by calling (607) 274-3356 or visiting the concert calendar at www.ithaca.edu/concerts.

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