Jazz Ensemble, Gospel Choir performs Nov. 3 in Yoder Recital Hall

 

Bluffton University’s Jazz Ensemble and Gospel Choir will share the Yoder Recital Hall stage for a 6 p.m. concert on Saturday, Nov. 3. Admission is free; an offering will be taken during intermission for music scholarships.

Paul Baransy, an adjunct instructor at Bluffton, conducts the Jazz Ensemble, which will perform seven pieces.

Among the student soloists are tenor saxophonist Chelsey Parker, a junior from McComb, Ohio, on “Moten Swing” and Sting’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” and pianist Rob Young, a junior from New Bremen, Ohio, on “Moten Swing” and “Autumn Leaves.”

Allison Trent, a senior from Orrville, Ohio, also has a solo on “Moten Swing,” as do first-year students Amanda Bartel, from Iowa City, Iowa, on “Blue Moon,” and Ryan Johnson-Evers, from Muskego, Wis., on Baransy’s “You’re Not From Here.”

Conducting the Gospel Choir is Dr. Crystal Sellers Battle, an assistant professor of music.

The choir will present five numbers, three of them by contemporary gospel artist, composer and arranger Richard Smallwood.

Student soloists are junior Spencer Genson of Millbury, Ohio, and sophomores Neil Macke of Ottawa, Ohio, and Julia Thomas of Springfield, Ohio, all on the late Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “I’m Gonna Sing ‘Til the Spirit Moves in My Heart.”

Accompanying the choir will be Bluffton pianist Allison Ringold and a Columbus-based trio led by Sellers Battle’s brother, Wesley Sellers.