In May of 2007, the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble's long standing reputation as one of America's finest collegiate jazz groups was reaffirmed by earning DownBeat Magazine's Outstanding Collegiate Big Band Performance Award for the third time in the past two decades. LUJE members have repeatedly been cited for the Best Original Composition/Extended Composition Award, Best Jazz Arrangement Award, and Outstanding Jazz Instrumental Solo Performance Award. Under the direction of Fred Sturm, LUJE performs and records frequently throughout the school year, presenting cutting edge large ensemble literature, historically significant works, Lawrence student and faculty compositions and arrangements, and accompanying visiting jazz solo artists (see Jazz Celebration Weekend 2012 link for list of guest artists).
Recent Repertoire
• New Works by Lawrence Jazz Students (compositions and arrangements for large jazz ensemble)
• The Gil Evans Centennial Jazz Project (13 Evans works from 1942 to 1987)
• Radiohead Jazz Project (premiere performances of 12 commissioned arrangements)
• Fred Sturm Migrations: One World, Many Musics featuring vocalist Bobby McFerrin
• The Jazz Century: Celebrating 100 Years of Jazz History
• Tim Ries & Matt Harris The Rolling Stones Project
• Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn: Nutcracker Suite
• Gil Evans (arranger) Porgy and Bess (complete score as recorded by Miles Davis)
• Gil Evans (arranger) Miles Ahead (complete score as recorded by Miles Davis)
• Benny Golson The Big Band Works of Benny Golson featuring Benny Golson, tenor saxophone
• Lars Jansson Temenos (original compositions for large jazz ensemble)
• Maria Schneider Hang Gliding, Three Romances, Aires de Lando, and Sky Blue
• Kenny Wheeler Now and Now Again, Sea Lady, W.W., and We Salute the Night
• John Hollenbeck The Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws
• Ingrid Jensen/arr. Fred Sturm At Sea
• Fred Sturm Bodacious Cowboys: 3 Decades of Steely Dan
• Fred Sturm Tango Nuevo: The Music of Astor Piazzolla
Conductor
- Fred Sturm
Kimberly-Clark Professor of Music
Fred Sturm is the Director of Jazz and Improvisational Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. He serves as guest conductor/composer/arranger for professional jazz ensembles and radio orchestras in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Norway; as director of university jazz ensembles and high school all-state jazz bands throughout the U.S.; as clinician at national educational conferences and festivals; and as composer-in-residence for school and university music programs.
Fred's compositions and arrangements have been performed by jazz ensembles, symphony orchestras, wind ensembles, and chamber groups worldwide, featuring renowned artists Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Brookmeyer, Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Gary Burton, Arild Andersen, and John Scofield. His works are published by Lorenz Heritage JazzWorks, Universal Edition, Sierra Music Publications, Kendor, Warner Brothers/Alfred Music, Advance Music, Ensemble Publications, Really Good Music, and UNC Jazz Press, have been issued on Concord Jazz, RCA, hrMedia, and Warner Brothers Records, and received a 1997 Grammy Award nomination. His 9 "inning" baseball symphony Forever Spring is currently touring American orchestras with The Baseball Music Project under the auspices of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Migrations: One World, Many Musics, Fred’s concert suite featuring indigenous music from 21 countries, was premiered by vocalist Bobby McFerrin and the NDR Big Band in Germany in 2007 and toured Europe the following summer.
Fred was the 2003 recipient of the ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted annually to one established jazz composer of international prominence. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music, and the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund. His texts, Changes Over Time: The Evolution of Jazz Arranging, Kenny Wheeler: Collected Works on ECM, and Maria Schneider: Evanescence are published by Advance Music (Germany) and Universal Edition (Vienna), and his teaching concept titled All Ears: Improvisation, Aural Training, and the Creative Process is widely used by school music educators.
Fred served as Professor and Chair of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music in New York from 1991 to 2002, where he directed the internationally acclaimed Eastman Jazz Ensemble, conducted the 70-piece Eastman Studio Orchestra, and coordinated the Eastman jazz composition and arranging program. During his university teaching career, Downbeat Magazine has cited his ensembles as the finest in the United States and Canada nine times. He studied at Lawrence, Eastman, and the University of North Texas, and was a founding member of the jazz nonet Matrix. He received the University Award for Excellence in Teaching at Lawrence in 2005 and the 2010 Downbeat Jazz Education Achievement Award.
Fred Sturm's personal webpage: http://www.fredsturm.com
Mizar 5 Web Magazine Interview
Contact by e-mail: fred.sturm@lawrence.edu
