JAZZ AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY serves to promote this uniquely American music as a contemporary and relevant art form. Its goals are to convey the vast musical and social history of jazz, establish a strong theoretical and stylistic foundation with regard to improvisation and composition, and emphasize the development of individual expression and creativity. Offerings of this program include academic course work, performing ensembles, master classes, private study, and independent projects. Jazz at Princeton
University thanks you for joining them on this evening’s journey of beauty, exploration, discovery, and hope.
JAZZ VOCAL COLLECTIVE is a small jazz ensemble that features solo voice and a rhythm section (i.e. piano, guitar, bass, and drums) to create a collaborative musical experience. In JVC, vocalists are responsible for selecting repertoire, creating, and notating their own musical arrangements of jazz standards and popular songs, and developing and performing those arrangements in class throughout the semester. JVC meets on Thursday nights from 7-9PM in the Jazz Studio of the Effron Music Building, and holds auditions during the first week of the fall semester. If you are interested in auditioning for next year for JVC or any other of the ensembles offered in the jazz program, please contact the Jazz program director, Rudresh Mahanthappa at
Vocalist, educator, bandleader Michelle Lordi has received international accolades and heavy rotation on jazz/AAA radio stations in the US and abroad for her jazz and genre bending recording projects. Lordi has performed in jazz clubs, festivals and performance venues all across the US and in Europe, including Birdland, Smoke (NYC), Le Duc des Lombards (Paris), The Jazz Cruise (FLA), World Café Live, Mann Music Center, The Kimmel Center (PA). Her albums have garnered favorable reviews in Downbeat, JazzTimes, Jazziz (US), Jazz Journal, JazzWise (UK), JazzLife & Jaz.In (Japan). Lordi’s music has been featured by NPR Music and on Fresh Air With Terry Gross. Whether Lordi is performing american songbook standards with jazz legends such as Houston Person, exploring experimental soundscapes in her original music or delivering her taut, mesmerizing interpretations of pop ballads, a profound love of the music she chooses to sing and the musicians she creates with is evident in every note of her vividly expressive and elegantly communicative voice. Lordi brings an innate ability for insightful connection, creativity, and artistic collaboration that has been honed on the bandstand to her teaching to draw out the best performances in her students.