"Classical Meets Jazz" Opens the Distinguished Artists Series

The inaugural distinguised artists series at Cal State University San Bernardino hosted the first concert of the 2014-2015 season on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Master pianist Dennis Thurmond was featured as the series’ first distinguished artist. Thurmond is a director of piano pedagogy - the practice of teaching piano. Musically, he is a renowned classical and jazz pianist; and keyboard sythesist. His synthesizing work has been included in various forms, for the Boston Pops, Keyboards for the New York local jazz ensemble a production arranger for the Gospel Review Symphony Orchestra, and studio pianist for the T.V. series Party of Five. Thurmond performs in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He traveled to Cal State San Bernardino from Tennessee to perform as the season’s first distinguished artist. The event at the CSUSB performing arts recital hall began with classical and jazz improvisation at the piano, which covered a diverse span of styles; including Baroque-bach style improvisations, classical-alberti style, impressionistic- painting the the clouds with colors, and blues-Bartok style: all standout artists from each era. Next to the piano on stage, Thurmond used a keyboard and laptop to play his synthesized music with his live jazz piano playing. The audience, made up mostly of local musicians, music professors and students, were asked by Thurmond to interact in the performance by shouting key notes to include in the melody for each improvisation. Thurmond impressed with improvising on the piano with notes shouted out from the crowd. After each piece, the audience roared in applause and awes. The performance included a short intermission, which allowed the audience to speak with Thurmond personally. Following the intermission, Thurmond took the stage for a Q&A session with the audience. Aside from Thurmond’s extensive resume as a working musician, he is the former chairman of the music synthesis department and piano class program at the Berklee College of Music and is currently on the summer faculty at the Urecht Conservsatory in the Netherlands as well as the master class faculty at the Shanghai and Dalian conservatories. Thurmond is also the former director of piano pedagogy at the USC. Audience members took advantage of Thurmond’s expertise with specific questions about improving piano playing, memorizing music and tips on how to make music a career. For any piano question, Thurmond enthusiastically played his answer, as if giving a personal lesson to every musician that asked a question. Thurmond answered the audience’s questions one by one for the end portion of the concert. As the audience left the hall, Thurmond played exiting music for the audience, he said, was one of the best. The series is a three-part year-long concert/lecture series featuring internationally-famed musicians. The series is part of CSUSB’s music department’s community engagement initiative with the effort of Dr. Jocelyn Hua-Chen Chang, executive director of the distinguished artists series, along with the faculty and staff members of the CSUSB music department, the piano society at CSUSB, the Coyote Music Society, and Dr. Phillip Young, the director of keyboard studies program at Pasadena City College and the program’s numerous local sponsors as well as the CSUSB Music Department chair Dr. Todd Johnson, the series is an annual success that bridges meaningful relationships between the world-class artists, Cal State San Bernardino and the local communities. “We hope to continue to provide this educational opportunity and concert series to CSUSB, for not only the campus but also to the communities of Southern California to benefit the people of the community,” Dr. Hua-Chen Chang, executive director of the distinguished artists series, said. The next event in the concert/lecture series will be Feb. 10, 2015, featuring composer pianist and producer Patrick Morganelli on the American film industry, which will discuss the issues and trends in the film/television music industry. The final event in the three-part series is Mar. 17- observed as “Piano day at CSUSB”. It will feature Dr. Stewart Gordon. professor at the USC Thorton School of Music, leading the Beethoven Piano Sonatas: decisions facing the performer and the teacher. All events of the distinguished artists series are free. All attendees are required to RSVP on the website for admission by visiting www.distinguishedseries.org.