Maplerock Jazz Festival
Thursday, April 3, 2025 - 11:30am
Address:
AU’s Center for the Arts
331 College Ave
Ashland, OH 44805
The annual Maplerock Jazz Festival, hosted by Ashland University and featuring the Ashland University Jazz Orchestra (AUJO), will take place this Thursday, April 3, at AU’s Center for the Arts (331 College Ave.). The festival is a mix of education and entertainment, as regional scholastic groups learn from internationally-recognized jazz artists during the afternoon and then the AUJO plays a concert with the guest artists at 7 p.m.
High school jazz ensembles will each perform for 25-30 minutes in a non-competitive format, starting with Cuyahoga Falls at 11:30 a.m. and followed by Crestview at noon, Ashland “B” at 12:30 p.m., Rittman at 1 p.m., Centerburg at 1:30 p.m., Ashland “A” at 2 p.m. and Brecksville-Broadview Heights at 2:30 p.m. Each group will then receive a clinic with instruction.
The AUJO 7 p.m. concert including this year’s special guests Pat Harbison (trumpet), Mike Lee (saxophone), Reggie Thomas (piano) and Matt Wilson (drums) is inside Hugo Young Theatre. Guest artist appearances have been made possible in part through the Gretchen French Fund.
The concert will feature classic jazz standards such as “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern, arranged by Vaughn Weister; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s “Mambo Swing,” arranged by Bob Feldbush; “Pools” by Don Grolnick, arranged by John Fedchock; Matt Wilson’s “Scenic Route,” arranged by J.C. Sanford; “Step Right Up” by Oliver Nelson; and George Gershwin’s “Summertime,’ arranged by Frank Mantooth.
Tickets for the concert can be purchased at ashland.edu/performing-arts-tickets. Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students. AU students are admitted free.
Scott Garlock, director of the award-winning AUJO and professor of music, noted that the Maplerock Jazz Festival is one of the oldest jazz festivals in the Midwest and is named after the process by which the region’s Indigenous people extracted maple syrup.
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