Excited to present my first concert at Providence College, featuring the PC Jazz Ensemble and Funk Band!

You can find details on this show and many others on the PC Music Department Website - here!

Please come out and support LIVE MUSIC!

It has been a fantastic year at Frost - and specifically, I have seen really positive returns on our musicianship curriculum in the Studio Music and Jazz department.

Over the past two years, I have written, refined, and taught a comprehensive, jazz theory and aural skills course on functional harmony. It was an amazing learning experience implementing this course, which is designed to support material covered in the other areas of 1st and 2nd year students’ musicianship study, including piano fundamentals and skills ensembles i.e. small combos, while also preparing them for future courses in jazz arranging and composition. It is not an exaggeration to say I am already excited to continue building this curriculum next semester!

- B

The Frost Studio Jazz Band presents a concert featuring new music by Stephen Guerra, Jr., graduate assistant William Longo, and members of the Frost Studio Jazz Band.

Come out to Gusman Hall at the University of Miami and support live music! 

Purchase tickets here! UM students free with valid ID!

Very proud to have orchestrated a few charts for this show, along with Carlos Mata-Alvarez and Stephen Guerra!

From the Arsht Center Press Release:

When the music of Ma Rainey meets Miles Davis, expect the realms of blues and jazz to be out of this world!

Originally developed for and performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center this past season, renowned blues-rock guitarist, 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and life-long jazz fan Steve Miller will host a wide-ranging musical revue. Special guests include Jimmie Vaughan on guitar, Mike Flanigin on the Hammond B3 organ, jazz vocalist Brianna Thomas, and JAZZ ROOTS artistic advisor Shelly Berg on piano. Together with the Frost School of Music's Henry Mancini Institute Big Band, they will take a Blues Journey from Ma Rainey to Miles Davis!

Purchase tickets here!

Frost Studio Jazz Band live in the WDNA Gallery!
Award winning Frost Studio Jazz Band, under the direction of Stephen Guerra, in a program of new music, also by Stephen Guerra, William Longo, and members of the band this coming Thursday at 11am in the UM Frost Jazz Hour, on WDNA 88.9 FM -wdna.org in live streaming video.

FREE ADMISSION to this LIVE event at the wdna studios -2921 Coral Way . Listen or come join us every Thursday for the best of the World-Renowned University of Miami Frost Jazz .

Super excited to be traveling to LA with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, featuring Patti Austin, Kristin Chenoweth, Clint Holmes, Quincy Jones, Dave Koz, Monica Mancini, Matthew Morrison, Robert Wagner, and John Williams!

From the press release:

"The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts celebrates the musical legacy of Henry Mancini, one of the world’s greatest composers, conductors and arrangers, on Saturday, April 1, 2017. From “Moon River” to “The Days of Wine and Roses” to the “Peter Gunn Theme,” the music of Henry Mancini has helped define American film and television soundtracks for nearly five decades, and earned the legendary composer four Academy Awards, twenty Grammy Awards and numerous other honors, including a U.S. Postage Stamp. The evening not only honors Henry Mancini, but also celebrates Ginny Mancini and the Mancini family with a special performance by the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami—their first Los Angeles appearance since their move to Florida—with all proceeds benefiting the artistic, educational and outreach programs of The Wallis."

Enjoy a lively tribute to jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans, featuring Frost Studio Jazz Band under the direction of Stephen Guerra, as well as Jazz Vocal I and Extensions under the direction of Kate Reid.

Come down to Gusman Hall and support this show, which features arrangements of Evans' music by my colleagues in the Studio Jazz Writing Program!

Purchase tickets here! UM students free with valid ID!

Come out to the Gusman Hall and experience some fantastic new music performed by Bruce Hornsby with Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra!

Hornsby's set of 11 pieces will be performed at Festival Miami with the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. Reflecting modern classical influences such as Olivier Messiaen’s “musique d’oiseaux,” Anton Webern’s pointillism, Elliott Carter’s late-career piano music, Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone melodicism, and Gyorgy Ligeti’s piano etude writing, this concert will include such songs (co-written with Hornsby’s songwriting partner Chip deMatteo) as “Life in the Psychotropics,” “Neighborhood Watch,” “Adonis,” and “Here We are Again.”

Purchase tickets here!

Jon Secada will perform the music of iconic 1950s Cuban entertainer Beny Moré, an influential singer/songwriter who led the way to today’s modern tropical sounds. Accompanied by my colleagues in the incredible DownBeat Collegiate Award-winning Frost Studio Jazz Band, Secada will also perform his own greatest hits, celebrating over 20 years as a recording artist and songwriter.

This is going to be a fantastic show! Purchase tickets here!

Join the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra as they assist award-winning composer-conductor Jeff Beal in a performance of his multi-Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning music from the Netflix original series House of Cards. His sensational scoring will be accompanied by a video montage of scenes from the show’s first three seasons projected over the stage. Beal is celebrated for providing absorbing musical voices to the characters, “to somehow echo the complex, dangerous, and sly waters they tread in their quest for power and revenge.” 

Purchase tickets here!

Featuring: DAVE GRUSIN, SHELLY BERG, HENRY MANCINI INSTITUTE ORCHESTRA, AND MORE

Oscar- and 10-time Grammy-winning composer Dave Grusin, The the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, and a star-studded cast pay tribute to the legendary Jazz Roots and GRP Records founder, Larry Rosen.  We chronicle Rosen’s amazing life journey, which led him to produce some of the greatest music of the last 35 years.

I am absolutely thrilled to have contributed an arrangement for the lovely and talented Cyrill Aimée to perform for this concert!

Please come join us 8pm at the Arsht Center and celebrate the life of Larry Rosin. 

Purchase tickets here!.

The Frost Studio Jazz Band and Frost Jazz Vocal I Ensemble present a collaborative concert of standard repertoire from the American Songbook.

The show begins at 8pm in Gusman Hall - purchase tickets here!

Directors John Daversa and Steve Guerra conduct a fabulous concert featuring the Frost Studio Jazz Band playing music from composers Bill Holman and the Frost Concert Jazz Band performing original works by Frost composers in its 2nd second annual “House Writers” concert.

It is an honor to be assisting Dr. Guerra with conducting the Frost Studio Studio Jazz Band during the first concert of the fall semester!

Please come down to Gusman Hall at 8pm and support live music - purchase tickets here!  

Singer-actress Paula Wayne, who starred on Broadway with Sammy Davis Jr. in Golden Boy and also performed in Damn Yankees, Night Life, Paint Your Wagon, and The Ziegfeld Follies to name a few, has donated her complete library of music arrangements to the Frost School of Music. Paula Wayne will be in attendance as student singers and the Frost Studio Jazz Band perform arrangements created uniquely for her from performances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and with Liza Minnelli, Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Don Ho, Ed Sullivan, and many more. Paula Wayne also appeared opposite Burt Reynolds in the TV show The Hawk, for which she won an Emmy.  Enjoy a nostalgic evening on the town, filled with songs you know and love!

Come join us in Clarke Recital Hall @ the University of Miami - free admission!

Join the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra with guest conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, for an amazing night of film with live orchestra! This will be the Florida premiere of Raiders of the Lost Ark LIVE! - a full performance of John William's epic score live to picture.

Check out the promo video:

Please join the Henry Mancini Institute on Saturday, February 27th @ 8pm in Gusman Hall as we present a night of Strings and Big Band! 

Jeremy Cohen, violinist and founding member of Quartet San Francisco will joint he HMI String Quartet and special guests, including Frost School alumnus Andres Vera on cello. Selections include tango favorites for string quartet, a special performance of the first movement of the Prokofiev String Quartet No. 2. 

For the big band set, I have the honor of conducting the Frost Studio Jazz Band who, along with Cohen, will be performing composer Patrick William’s Concerto in Swing. 

Admission is FREE! Please come out and support live music!

I am absolutely thrilled to meet and learn from the Henry Mancini Institute's new artistic director, James Newton Howard! 

Here is the tentative program for the show:

Suite from Snow White and the Huntsman
Suite from The Hunger Games
“He Sleeps” from Pretty Woman
“The Harvey Dent Suite” from The Dark Knight
Suite from Water for Elephants
“The Gravel Road” from The Village
"Main Titles” from Glengarry Glen Ross
Suite from The Sixth Sense
A Conversation with M. Night Shyamalan
“The Empire State Building” from King Kong
“The Hand of Fate” from Signs
“The Hanging Tree” from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Suite from Maleficent

The music will be accompanied by film clips and montages, as a "live-to-picture" performance. Howard is one of Hollywood's most sought after and prolific composers with credits including Pretty Women, Snow White and the Huntsman and Wyatt Earp, just to name a few!

Join us at the Arsht Center for this special one-night event!

The Frost Studio Jazz Band, under the direction of Stephen Guerra, will perform the music of three of the greatest composers in jazz, Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer, and Jim McNeely - all associated with the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra).

I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to study and rehearse and conduct the three Jim McNeely pieces we will perform: Rosenwind, Ubermut, and Ad Parnassum - all inspired by the artwork of Paul Klee.

oin us on Friday, February 12th @ 8pm in Gusman Hall!

I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected to conduct the 2016 CMEA Southern Region High School Jazz Ensemble!

As a native of Connecticut, I participated in the CMEA Region and All-State Festivals for many years as both a student and adjudicator. It has always been fun to experience these festivals from multiple perspectives - and to have the opportunity to serve these fantastic students as a clinician and conductor is truly a dream come true! 

The Frost Studio Jazz Band is honored to have special guests Bobby Watson, Curtis Lundy, and Trent Austin join them in the final concert of the 2015 Fall semester - a fabulous concert inspired by and based on the Blues.

Come out and support live music - Saturday December 5th @ 8pm in Gusman Hall in Coral Gables!

Festival Miami 2015 comes to a close with a special performance! Join John Mills and Elmer Hopper of the Mills Brothers accompanied by the Frost Studio Jazz Band on November 7th @ 8pm at Gusman Hall. 

For more than 75 years the elegant and relaxed vocal harmonies of The Mills Brothers have attracted adoring audiences worldwide. With 71 chart singles spanning six decades, The Mills Brothers’ hit parade includes “Lazy River,” “Yellow Bird,” “Glow Worm,” “Paper Doll,” and “Cab Driver,” to name just a few. Here their music is authentically performed by singer John Mills II, who performed for over a decade with his father Donald Mills (the last surviving original band member), and the compelling Elmer Hopper, who spent 21 years with The Platters. 

Come out to the Arsht Center and experience some fantastic music performed by the HMI Orchestra with Terence Blanchard!

Jazz Roots and Festival Miami co-present a celebration of the movies of Spike Lee, with memorable scores by multi-Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard, who composed the music for all of Lee’s films from Malcom X to Inside Man. The evening features a montage of classic scenes from Spike Lee movies performed by the Blanchard and his quintet, the Frost School’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, plus three-time Grammy and Tony winner Dee Dee Bridgewater, vocalist Maysa, who performed on the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s film Jungle Fever, and Lizz Wright, an acclaimed composer, jazz, neosoul, and gospel stylist.

For tickets, visit http://www.arshtcenter.org.

Multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter and pianist Ben Folds will perform his critically acclaimed Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra on October 30th at 8pm in Gusman Hall.

I am especially thrilled to have contributed to this show! The second half will open with my Ben Folds Overture, consisting of four Ben Folds hits - One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces, Luckiest, Brick, and Army.  

The first half of the concert will feature John Williams' Escapades, Mason Bates' Mothership, and Arvo Part's Fratres. Not surprisingly, this show is sold out - but you can place your name on the waiting list here!

French jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée joins the Frost Studio Jazz Band and Jazz Vocal 1 Ensemble in upbeat arrangements of jazz favorites created especially for her by directors Stephen Guerra and Kate Reid. 

Aimée was the winner of the 2012 Sarah Vaughan Jazz Competition, a finalist in the 2010 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, and winner of the 2007 Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition.

Reserve your tickets online here!

Join the Frost Studio Jazz Band in Gusman Concert Hall for our first performance of the Fall semester on September 17th at 8pm. 

We will be performing pianist/arranger Bill Pott's oft-overlooked re-interpretations of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, as recorded on his 1959 release "The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess." 

Follow this link to preview/purchase this classic album!

Very excited to be working as a production assistant for the AARP Life@50 event at the Miami Beach Convention Center!