In October Adjunct Associate Professor of Classical and Jazz Trombone Matt Niess, D.M.A., performed at The National Presbyterian Church with a 12-piece brass ensemble and the choral group Choralis for the “Century of the Common Man” concert featuring works by Copland, Britten, and Vaughan Williams, as well as Joseph Jongen’s “Messe en l’honneur du Sant-Sacrement.” He performed with The Manhattan Transfer and The Festival Pops Orchestra at the George Mason Center for the Arts, The Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra with legendary clarinetist Eddie Daniels at The Hylton Center for the Arts, and at The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage with The Capitol Bones featuring vocalist Christal Rheams with a tribute to Aretha Franklin. Niess also performed at The American Art Gallery in the Kogod courtyard with the Paul Pieper sextet featuring all new works by Pieper.
In late October, Niess took the Shenandoah Trombone Collective, an ensemble comprising Shenandoah trombone and low brass students) to Pennsylvania to visit the Emmaus Moravian Church. The group provided music for the service and toured the grounds of the church, which has a rich trombone history going back to the 1750s. They visited The Moravian Church Archive in Bethlehem, which holds parts that were used for the first American performance of Haydn’s “The Creation,” early American-built trombones and what is believed to be the first cello crafted in America.
The Shenandoah Trombone Collective then performed with the oldest operating band in America, The Allentown Band. It opened the concert with a prelude of works by Mahler, Ellington, Niess, Bruckner and Adjunct Associate Professor of Trombone Jeff Cortazzo, D.M.A. It closed the concert with “76 Trombones.” The students then traveled to Nazareth and Strath Haven High Schools, performing for more than 800 people over the two-day trip.
Niess will direct an Essentially Ellington Jazz Band Competition at Shenandoah University on Saturday, Jan. 19. Essentially Ellington is sponsored by the Lincoln Center and will feature 10 high school bands, The U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble and clinicians from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Niess has been selected to serve as president of the Jazz Education Network-Virginia Chapter for a three-year term.
