Gorrell serves as Director of Jazz Studies for the nationally respected program at the University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab in Edmond, Oklahoma. The UCO Jazz Program is housed at a one-of-a-kind facility called the UCO Jazz Lab:īrian W. In addition to offering a Minor in Jazz Studies and Oklahoma’s only Master of Music in Jazz Studies, we also offer Oklahoma’s only Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance as well. After again performing at the 10th Annual JEN Conference in Reno in 2019 with Bob Mintzer, being cited for a third time in Downbeat Magazine’s 42nd Annual Student Music Awards for outstanding performance in the large jazz ensemble category was icing on the cake, along with more recent invitations to perform at the Midwest Clinic again in 2021 and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in July 2022! They were honored to tie first place in the collegiate ensemble division of the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival in March 2018 and were thrilled to give two performances at the actual Monterey Jazz Festival in September 2018. The group was again recognized by Downbeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards in 20 for outstanding performance in the large graduate ensemble category. In January 2011, 2013, 2015, 20, the group was selected to perform the honors jazz concert closing set at the Oklahoma Music Educators Annual Conference in Tulsa. In December 2013, the group was one of only two collegiate jazz ensembles nationwide selected to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago. In March 2012, the same group was named a winner for Large Jazz Ensemble in Downbeat Magazine’s 35th Annual Student Music Awards. Our top students then performed as a featured guest at the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference in Louisville in January 2012. Shortly after our current Director of Jazz Studies Brian Gorrell took over leadership of our flagship UCO Jazz Ensemble I in 2009, the group was invited to perform at both the 50th anniversary of the Jazz à Juan Festival in France and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, culminating in a major European tour in 2010.
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UCO big bands, combos and individual students have received numerous awards and honors for outstanding performances at events held around the world!
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With the notable addition of faculty member Lee Rucker in 1980, jazz at Central has now grown to include eleven student jazz groups with multiple undergraduate and graduate jazz degree offerings. Kidwell’s groups began receiving top honors at many nationally respected jazz festivals.
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Kent Kidwell formalized a student jazz ensemble as a formal class and founded our modern jazz program. In 1960 the first extracurricular student jazz group at the University of Central Oklahoma was formed.