Students join internationally renowned trumpeter on stage
Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen played for a packed Ragozzino Performance Hall during her performance for the 14th Annual Lane Jazz Festival, Jan. 25 and 26.
An artist-in-residence at the University of Michigan, Jensen has toured internationally, but this was her first visit to Eugene. As an award-winning performer and soloist, she was a featured speaker and performer at the Oregon Jazz Festival at UO and Lane, of which the Lane Jazz Festival was a part.
She wrapped up her visit with her performance at Ragozzino Performance Hall.
Lane Jazz Ensemble Director Ron Bertucci and UO Director of Jazz Studies Steve Owen organized the event.
“It was a great concert,” said Bertucci. “We started in 1998 … this space is great for concerts.”
Jensen, a West Coast native, blended a mix of covers and original material that brought the crowd to a standing ovation. She drew her inspiration from the “cedar trees, mildew and wet things,” she explained as she opened one of her original compositions.
She also paid tribute to the late Dave Brubeck, the famed pianist and jazz composer from the Dave Brubeck Five. She explained that her cover of Brubeck’s “40 Days” was an “important moment” for her.
Bertucci said Jensen’s performance was “intimate and immediate.”
Jensen invited three students from the clinics she taught to perform with her at the festival.
South Eugene High School student and Lane Jazz Ensemble member Ken Mastro Giovanni, a 17-year-old drummer, received an honorary scholarship from the festival along with several other students. Mastro Giovanni sat in for Gary Hobbs, the featured drummer for the night.
“It was simply amazing and a huge honor to play with her,” Mastro Giovanni said. “There was no rehearsal. Ron (Bertucci) told me, ‘You’re going to be playing tonight.’ I got a quick run-through, and that was it.”
Jensen closed out the evening and the festival, thanking the students, performers and guests.
“What a great house,” Jensen said.
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