Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend

The 22nd annual Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend will take place on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, 2025.

Saxophonist, composer, and scholar Bill Barron (1927–1989) started teaching as a faculty member at Wesleyan in 1975, bringing guest artists to perform on campus, and served as Chair of the Music Department. Barron also started the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra, giving students the opportunity to perform on the same stage as visiting jazz luminaries. The group has been directed by Professor of Music and African American Studies Jay Hoggard ’76, MA ’91 since 1991. Hoggard calls the creation of music a deep, cultural, spiritual, social practice. Wesleyan’s focus is music in the cultural context, with an awareness of historic, geopolitical, economic, and social factors that go into shaping the vocabulary, in addition to performance, Hoggard says. He has invited ensembles large and small to perform on campus. The African-American Music Program Weekend in 1992 included special guests flutist James Newton and bassist Mark Helias. A decade later, the first Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend in 2002 featured the Bobby Hutcherson Quartet.

Other artists that have been featured as a part of the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend have included Akua Dixon and Quartette Indigo, the Bennie Maupin trio with Buster Williams, the Boston Jazz Repertory Orchestra directed by Bill Lowe and Carl Atkins, Cedar Walton, Celebrating 100 Years of Thelonious Monk featuring the T.S. Monk Sextet, Craig Harris and Friends Play the Music of Sam Rivers, Eli Fountain's Percussion Discussion, Hugh Masekela, Jay Hoggard Harlem Hieroglyphs Ensemble, Jim McNeely Tentet, Dr. Lonnie Smith with Jonathan Kreisberg, The Makanda Project, Mixashawn's "Ghostly Trio" featuring Pheeroan akLaff and Bill Arnold, Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble, Oliver Lake Big Band including Josh Evans, Phil Woods/Ted Rosenthal duo, Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and Tina Fabrique.

Click here to see past Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend events.