Holyoke Community College to Present 26th Annual Jazz Festival March 28-29
HOLYOKE — The annual Holyoke Community College Jazz Festival returns for its 26th year on Friday, March 28, with pianist, composer, and educator Earl MacDonald joining the Amherst Jazz Orchestra and members of the HCC jazz faculty for a big-band concert.
The Friday show begins at 8 p.m. in HCC’s Leslie Phillips Theater in the Fine & Performing Arts building on the main HCC campus, 303 Homestead Ave.
MacDonald, the former musical director and pianist for trumpeter Maynard Ferguson, is director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut and teaches annually at the Jazz in July program at UMass Amherst.
“I met Earl MacDonald at the Jazz in July program at UMass and worked with him there in the summertime,” said HCC Jazz Professor Bob Ferrier, the festival organizer. “He’s a great educator, great piano player, and, on top of it, a great guy.”
The concert is free for HCC students, faculty, and staff, and $10 for the general public. Led by trombonist David Sporny, the Amherst Jazz Orchestra has been a mainstay of the HCC Jazz Festival since the first in 1998.
On Saturday, March 29, starting at 10 a.m. in the Fine & Performing Arts Building, MacDonald and members of the HCC Jazz Festival faculty will lead improvisation clinics, demonstrations, and jam sessions for area high-school and college musicians. Saturday events are free and open to the public.
As a bandleader, MacDonald has released seven albums. His accolades include a 2022 Covenant Award from GMA Canada, the Connecticut Office of the Arts’ 2020 Artistic Excellence Award, the Sammy Nestico Award for big-band arranging, and two JUNO Award nominations for Jazz Album of the Year.
The Winnipeg, Canada native earned degrees from McGill University and Rutgers, where he apprenticed with jazz master Kenny Barron. MacDonald has been called “a magical, musical alchemist of hip hybrids” by the Hartford Courant and “a major force in the world of jazz composition” by Dan Bilawsky on allaboutjazz.com.
