One of the hardest hit professions of the covid-19 pandemic is music. Music almost requires an audience. It is a very interactive art through which audiences and musicians connect. Shutdown and social distancing make performances nearly impossible.

Despite the difficulties presented by the situation, musicians try their best to keep connected and rehearse and teach, compose and play. So, it is with two avant-garde/new classical musicians Anna Morris and Angela Webber who compose, play, and conduct all within the genre of jazz.

On Friday, October 23, 2020, they will come via zoom at 11am to speak and demonstrate and play their instruments in their music master class What do we do now? Musicians in 2020…

The zoom connection is: https://sunyorange.zoom.us/j/99753847498

Co-leaders of the 18-piece Webber|Morris Big Band, each is highly involved as well in many other ensembles in the New York Metropolitan Area. They are both multi-instrumentalists who focus on saxophone and flute and interchange roles of player and composer/conductor of their band. Their musical compositions integrate improvisation and composition in a big band context earning their music praise by The New York Times as “ambitious original compositions” played by a “jagged-edged band.” The band has a new album, Both Are True, which debuted in April.

Webber and Morris were born and raised in Canada where it is “common practice for an event to begin with an acknowledgment that the land we inhabit is the traditional territory of Indigenous people,” states Webber. As white musicians in a Black art form, Webber and Morris believe deeply their debt to Black American music.

Come to this free session and converse with these highly talented jazz musicians, as they share their thoughts and expertise on various related, present-day topics.

Anna Webber is an alumna of McGill University, Montreal. She also holds masters degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Jazz Institute Berlin. She won the Charlie Parker Composition Prize of BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop member. She is leader of Simple Trio. And in 2018, she was honored as a Guggenheim Fellow.

Angela Morris holds a BA in Jazz Studies from Humber College, Toronto, and an MA in Music Composition from the Aaron Copland School of Music, CUNY Queens College. She is the leader of Rallidae, a voice w/instruments ensemble, and co-leader/member of TMT. In 2019, she was named a Composer Fellow at Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Boonville, California.

Questions may be directed to cultural@sunyorange.edu and check out website: www.sunyorange.edu/culturalaffairs.

Images info from top to bottom: The Webber|Morris Big Band ~ photo credit: Wolf Daniel; Angela Morris on flute & Anna Webber - conducting ~ photo credit: Wolf Daniel; Angela Morris and Anna Webber ~ photo credit: TJ Huff.