Iron Toys
Sunday, April 13, 2025 - 7:30pm
Address:
Center for the Arts
331 College Ave
Ashland, OH 44805
The Ashland University Department of Music presents a guest artist recital by Iron Toys on Sunday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m., at the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall inside the Center for the Arts (331 College Ave.). The event is free and open to the public.
The performance will feature a diverse repertoire blending classical, jazz and avant-garde styles on multiple woodwind instruments.
Iron Toys is a saxophone and woodwind quartet, founded in 2004, that plays music in a range of jazz and contemporary classical styles on multiple woodwind instruments. In fact, the group has more than 20 instruments available for any given performance. The members consist of Tom Reed, George Shernit, Howie Smith and Brad Wagner, and they are all considered leading musicians in Ohio. Their album, “Iron Toys,” was released in 2015.
Reed is a professor of music at AU, principal clarinetist of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra and bass clarinetist with the Akron Symphony Orchestra. He has performed regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and he has recorded with the Akron Symphony, the Jazz Unit, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Paul Ferguson Jazz Orchestra.
Shernit has been a freelance musician for more than 40 years, performing with the likes of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Band and numerous Broadway shows and entertainers. He also has worked in the wholesale music business for the past 30 years, including seven years as national sales manager for Jupiter Band Instruments.
Smith is an emeritus professor of composition and jazz studies at Cleveland State University and has performed concerts and presented workshops internationally. He has worked with a number of renowned musicians, such as John Cage, the Cleveland Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvis Presley and the Tone Road Ramblers. Smith twice served as co-chair of both the Jazz Fellowship and the Music Overview panels for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Wagner is a musician, composer and arranger for Pulse, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Ernie Krivda and the Fat Tuesday Big Band and The Black Dog Octet. As a freelance musician, he has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Akron Symphony, the Canton Symphony, the Kentucky Symphony, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the Jazz Heritage Orchestra, as well as played pit orchestras for Broadway shows.
Add to Apple Calendar Add to Google Calendar Add to Outlook Calendar Add to Yahoo Calendar« Back to Calendar
