Steve Wilson with the VCU Jazz Faculty Septet and Symphonic Wind Ensemble

VCUarts Music is excited to announce that guest artist and alum, Steve Wilson, will perform with the VCU Jazz Faculty Septet and VCU Symphonic Wind Ensemble on April 15th at 7:00 pm in the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts.

The performance will feature the Virginia premiere of Billy Childs’ Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Symphony, a bold new work commissioned by VCUarts Music as part of a consortium of top college programs.

Tickets for the performance are $5.00 for VCU students and $14.00 for General Admission. VCU Music Students attend for free.

ABOUT THE GUEST ARTIST & COMPOSER

Highly regarded as a musician’s musician, Steve Wilson has brought his distinctive sound to more than 100 recordings and ensembles led by such celebrated artists as Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, George Duke, Michael Brecker, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, and many others. Starting his formal training on saxophone in his native Hampton, Virginia, Wilson majored in music at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he performed and/or studied with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, John Hicks, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis.

Billy Childs has emerged as one of the foremost American composers of his era, perhaps the most distinctly American composer since Aaron Copland – for like Copland, he has successfully married the musical products of his heritage with the Western neoclassical traditions of the twentieth century in a powerful symbiosis of style, range, and dynamism. His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Disney Concert Hall. He has also garnered seventeen GRAMMY nominations and six awards: two for Best Instrumental Composition (Into the Light from Lyric and The Path Among The Trees from Autumn: In Moving Pictures), two for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist (including New York Tendaberry from Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, featuring Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma), and two for Best Instrumental Jazz Album: Rebirth (2018) and The Winds of Change (2024).