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Mark
Lopeman - After completing his degree at Eastman,
Lopeman focussed on the tenor sax and in 1980 performed at
the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival with the Akron
University Jazz Ensemble, then directed by Paolucci,
garnering an award as most outstanding instrumentalist. He
also played in a quartet led by Akron composer/pianist Pat
Pace, in rock/show band "Revelation", led by his
boyhood friend, trumpeter Dave Banks, and Jack Schantz'
"Jazz Unit". During his early post-college
career he went on the road with the Glenn Miller |
Orchestra
and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra before moving to New York in
1981, whereupon he continued his "road" career in
Broadway show troupes of "Annie" and "On Your
Toes" and played a brief stint on lead tenor with Woody
Herman before joining the Buddy Rich band on lead alto
(1983-84). While he was with Rich the band also backed up Frank
Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme.
Arriving
back in New York Lopeman played with bands led by Toshiko
Akiyoshi, Loren Schoenberg, Mel Lewis, Vince Giordano and
others. Lopeman enrolled at Columbia Law School, which he
attended from 1987 to 1990 (with honors) while also fathering
two children and maintaining a busy schedule of arranging,
transcribing and performing. He passed the bar and soon began
practicing law with a small firm headed by a brilliant (and
broad-minded) senior partner, Robert Tofel.
To
Lopeman's surprise the phone kept ringing with offers of musical
engagements. One day in 1992 the receptionist in his law-firm
office told him "Mister Lopeman, while you were out you got
a call from a Mister Gerry Mulligan." Noting in amazement
the 203 area code on the message, Lopeman asked, "Do you
know who he is?" "No," the receptionist answered
indifferently, "he never called here before." Mulligan
asked Lopeman to transcribe his own arrangements from Miles
Davis' "Birth of the Cool" recordings and Lopeman
eventually toured briefly with Mulligan's "Rebirth of the
Cool" band.
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Paul
Ferguson, Artistic Director, Lead Trombone Cleveland Jazz
Orch
Paul
Ferguson has been director of Jazz Studies at Case Western
Reserve University since 1988. A graduate of the
University of Akron and the Eastman School of Music, Paul
has traveled with the Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller bands
as lead trombonist and arranger and currently fills those
functions with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. Paul |
was
principal trombonist of theCanton Symphony from 1989-98 and at
various times has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra,
Cleveland Opera, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Apollos’s Fire,
the Cleveland Chamber Brass, the New Hampshire Festival
Orchestra and various groups across Northeast Ohio. In 1995,
Paul was the recipient of the Gil Evans Fellowship in Jazz
Composition.He has two recordings–”Blue Highways”,
recorded with the RIAS Big Band of Berlin, and “Friends”,
recorded with his own orchestra. Last summer, Paul taught at
an International Jazz Seminar in Zarautz, Spain, wrote three
arrangements for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and wrote three
arrangements for the Cleveland Pops for use on the Drew Carey
show
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Chas
Baker, TromboneTrombonist Chas Baker recently retired
from Kent State University where he was an associate
professor of Jazz Studies and led the KSU Jazz Ensemble.
His backround includes experience as a soloist for the
Austrian Radio & TV Network Big Band in Vienna,
Austria. In 1968-69, as a U.S. Army band man, he was
trombone soloist with the 1st Air Cavalry Division Band,
Viet Nam. Chas has been a very active player with the
Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and in that capacity has
performed behind |
guest artists including
Bob Brookmeyer, Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider and John Hollenbeck.
He also has worked in concerts starring the likes of Tony
Bennett and David Sanborn. In 1997, the KSU Alumni
Association and the KSU Foundation honored him with its
Distinguished Teaching Award.
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