MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble
Frederick Harris Jr., Music Director
North Indian Flute
Skandaprasad Rao (G) India
Alto Saxophone
Kevin Li (G) IL
Ezekiel Daye ‘25 CT
Tenor Saxophone
Isaac Taylor ‘25 DC
Matthew Michalek (G) CA
Alexander Mazurenko ‘28 MA
Baritone Saxophone
Nick Cerone ‘26 PA
Mackenzie Riley (G) MA
Trumpet
Chloe Ferderer, MN
Cal Rustad ‘28 MA
Andrew Lee ‘26 MA
Ben Lammers ‘26 MI
Estrella Cayuelas Solano ‘28 Spain
Trombone
Alex Jin ‘27 MA
Jake Weiss ‘28 AZ
Evan Harrison ‘26 MD
Dubem Echezona ‘27 NJ
Bass Trombone
Dylan Rodriguez Barrera ‘26 OR
Piano
Coleman Gliddon (G) MO
Guitar
Emily Albornoz ‘26 CA
Bass
Evan Boothe ‘25 OK
Drums
Sam McClurg
Percussion
Axel O Vera Sanchez (G) PR
Tap Dance
Sabrina Drammis (G) SC
About the Director
Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. is the Director of Wind and Jazz Ensembles at MIT, where he serves at Music Director of the MIT Wind Ensemble, MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, and oversees jazz chamber music programs including three combos, MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and the Emerson Jazz Scholars Program.
He and the MIT Wind Ensemble have been featured on PBS in the 2014 Emmy-winning documentary Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring through Music, with music by Jamshied Sharifi. Harris and his students also are featured in the 2018 Emmy-winning documentary Imagination Off The Charts: Jacob Collier Comes to MIT.
He is a strong advocate for the creation and performance of new music, having commissioned and/or premiered 95 works for wind, jazz, and mixed ensembles, recently leading pieces by Jamshied Sharifi, Chick Corea, Don Byron, Jacob Collier, and Miguel Zenón. He has also been highly active with public school students and music educators throughout his career. Harris is the author of Conducting with Feeling and Seeking the Infinite: The Musical Life of Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and is currently writing a biography of Herb Pomeroy. He has performed as a drummer with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, John Harbison, the Boston Pops, and Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano.
Nominated by his students, Harris is a 2013 and 2019 recipient of the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT.
Special Guest
Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959, Chicago) is a composer/clarinetist whose work explores theintersections of cultures and genres. He has written for opera, dance, film, Balinese gamelan, and immersive visual art, and he was a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, serving as their music director for over 20 years. His opera A House in Bali was featured at BAM/Next Wave in 2010, and his Oedipus Rex premiered at American Repertory Theater in 2004. He has collaborated with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Maya Beiser, Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, Ken Burns, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Don Byron. His recordings include the definitive versions of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint, Philip Glass’ Best Out of Three, and Terry Riley’s Xi. His newest album, Art Decade, with ContaQt contemporary music, will be released in summer 2025, and he is currently composing a new work for the LA-based PARTCH Ensemble. Ziporyn has shared in two Grammy awards (with the Steve Reich Ensemble & Silkroad); he has received awards & commissions from USArtists, the American Academy of Arts & Letters, Mass Cultural Council, and Carnegie Hall/Tanglewood. He studied at Eastman, Yale & UC Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and Gerard Grisey. A member of the MIT faculty since 1990, he is currently Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music, and Faculty Director of the Center for Art, Science & Technology.
About the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble
The MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) was founded in 1963 by Boston jazz icon Herb Pomeroy and led since 1999 by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. This advanced 18 to 20-member big band/jazz ensemble is comprised of outstanding MIT undergraduate and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines. An advanced combo is formed from the membership of the MIT FJE. MIT FJE performs traditional and contemporary jazz ensemble literature, including student compositions and new works written for the MIT FJE by major jazz composers. Improvisation is a prominent part of the MIT FJE experience. MIT FJE has released five professional recordings including its major jazz label debut on Sunnyside in 2015, Infinite Winds, which received a five-star review from DownBeat and was chosen by the magazine as one of its “Best Albums of 2015 Five-Star Masterpieces.”
The FJE has a long history of performing original music by MIT students and composers from around the world. Since 2001, it has presented over 50 world premieres. Among others, Mark Harvey, Herb Pomeroy, Jamshied Sharifi, Ran Blake, John Harbison, Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Gunther and George Schuller, Kenny Werner, Don Byron, Steve Turre, Magali Souriau, Guillermo Klein, Chris Cheek, Miguel Zenón, Dominique Eade, and Luciana Souza have collaborated with the MIT FJE. In January of 2019 the FJE participated in a highly successful cultural exchange, touring Puerto Rico with Miguel Zenón, presenting concerts in various venues and also STEM workshops in middle and high schools.
Learn about the MIT FJE’s collaboration with Grammy-winner Jacob Collier in this Emmy-winning documentary. Watch the Emmy-nominated documentary The Great Clarinet Summit, featuring MIT FJE. See an overview of MIT FJE’s recent tour of Puerto Rico. Watch MIT FJE and Sean Jones perform an original composition by MIT student Alan Osmundson and Warren Wolf perform Heal! by MIT pianist-composer Peter Godart. MIT FJE participated in MIT's 2021 virtual Commencement, performing Diary of a Pandemic Year. See an overview of MIT FJE’s history here.
In March of 2023 the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, along with the MIT Wind Ensemble and MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, toured and performed in the Brazilian Amazon. The project was focused on cultural and environmental sustainability and music's power as a vehicle for change.
