DuPage Community Jazz Ensemble Performs Dec. 1 at the MAC

DuPage Community Jazz Ensemble presents an evening of jazz standards and new arrangements at a 7:30 p.m. performance Thursday, Dec. 1, in Belushi Performance Hall at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., in Glen Ellyn.

The Dec. 1 concert features guest baritone saxophonist Tom Zimney, vocalist Deb Zelman and ensemble members performing the classic jazz standards of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, John Birks Gillespie and others.

"We pride ourselves on our work of learning from these masters, offering performance opportunities for area performers such as Tom Zimney to join us on stage, as well as giving our students the chance to grow in their musical abilities in composition and arranging," said ensemble Director Tom Tallman.

Zimney recently graduated from Elmhurst College with a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies. While a student, he performed through the Midwest as well as in Chile, Croatia and Serbia, studying with such grates as Mark Colby, Tom Garling, Frank Portolese, Frank Caruso and Gary Smulyan. He is recipient of a Luminarts Jazz Fellowship from the Cultural Foundation at the Union League of Chicago and was a 2014 semi-finalist for the North American Saxophone Alliance regional jazz improvisation conference.

Tickets to the Dec. 1 event are $5 in advance and $6 at the door. For more information, call the MAC Box office at (630) 942-4000, or visit www.atthemac.org.

DuPage Community Jazz Ensemble performs dances and concert programs during the academic year as well as numerous off-campus performances. Its repertoire spans more than a century of large jazz ensemble compositions, including original work from its members. The ensemble is a frequent presence at the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival, has performed at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and in 2004 was recognized by the United States House of Representatives for its work on behalf of the Armed Forces Children's Education Fund. Music 1181, Community Jazz Ensemble, is a course at COD open to any musician interested in the American musical performance tradition.

Tom Tallman is Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Ensembles at College of DuPage, a position he has held since 1990. Since 1998, his commissioned compositions and arrangements for jazz ensemble and concert band have been performed by numerous middle school, high school, community and professional ensembles in the Chicago metropolitan region. He has worked as a clinician and judged a variety of competitions in Florida, Texas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois, and is a two-time ILMEA director at the District level. His latest recording credit is with The Jeff Benedict Big Band on the recording "Holmes" (Maroon Creek Music, 2014), and he contributed to Volume 2 of Teaching Music through Performance in Jazz (GIA Publications, 2015).

For more information about the COD Jazz Ensemble, click here.