The Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble, the Center for Music's premier jazz group, is led by jazz studies director Mike Titlebaum. In recent years, guest artists have included Camille Thurman, Peter Bernstein, Alexa Tarantino, Roxy Coss, Terell Stafford, and more. Other guest artists featured with the bands over the years have included Marian McPartland, Walter White, Thad Jones, Peter Leitch, Phil Woods, John Stowell, Andy LaVerne, Bob Sneider, Gary Smulyan, Steve Wilson, Jeff Ballard, Stephanie Nakasian, Tom Harrell, Hal Galper, Marvin Stamm, and many others.
The ensemble performs two formal concerts at Ithaca each semester in addition to many other additional events on campus and in the community. Annual special performances include:
- A Saturday morning educational jazz concert for children and families
- Audition day performance
- A performance for IC family weekend
- Composition contest winner's concert
- Commencement eve concert
- Friends of Ithaca dinner dance
JAZZ ENSEMBLE VIDEO
On March 5, 2012, the Jazz Ensemble performed a complete "head chart" concert where all the pieces were learned by ear and memorized. The complete performance was web streamed live, and can also be viewed in its entirely at the Center for Music's On Demand page:
On December 7, 2012, the Jazz Ensemble performed the annual composition contest winner's concert with guest artist Terell Stafford. The video from the live web stream can be viewed in its entirety at the Center for Music's On Demand page: