The Ensemble Experience at PVCC

The Music Department at Paradise Valley Community College is pleased to offer a wide variety of music performance ensembles for the Spring 2016 semester. The music ensembles are open to music students and community members of all ages and abilities. The spring offerings include Concert Band, Jazz Big Band, Latin Jazz Band, Jazz Combo, Vocal Ensemble, String Ensemble, Cello Ensemble, Piano Ensemble, Contemporary Music Ensemble, Clarinet Ensemble, Multimedia Ensemble, Brazilian Percussion Ensemble, Student Rock Band and much more!

Music Ensembles are listed in the course catalog under the prefix MUP and course number 160, 185, 181, 190.

Music Ensembles meet once per week in the late afternoon and evenings in the Center for the Performing Arts.

The ensemble experience at PVCC provides students with community: our ensembles are a mix of high school students, college-age students, community members and retired professionals. Students and instructors collaborate to select repertoire for public performances held in the Center for Performing Arts. Students gain practical and performance experience in instrumental, vocal, and mixed ensembles.


Spring 2016 Ensembles at PVCC:
MUP 163 Jazz Ensemble: Jazz Big Band
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Union Jazz Institute
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Jazz Combo
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Latin Jazz
MUP 190 Percussion Ensemble: World Music
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Multimedia
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Openscore
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Flute
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Cello/String
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Brass
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Band
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Recording
MUP 181 Chamber Music Ensemble: Classic Piano

Register for Spring 2016 at classes.sis.maricopa.edu

The Fall 2015 Festival of Tales | Student Review by Nicole Zimora

The Festival of Tales is a FREE storytelling festival at Paradise Community college. From 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., children from the community engage in different types of literacy-based activities: arts & crafts, storytelling and more. During registration each child is given two tickets - one for a “book walk” and the other for a free book.

Children have the opportunity to pick their favorite book at a table set up with hundreds of different types of books for different reading levels. They receive free books by doing the “book walk.” Music plays as they walk around a number placement; when the music stops numbers are drawn and the number called out receives a free book! Children play games centered on literary characters and participate in storytelling sessions in which books are read aloud.

Throughout the event live music was playing provided by the PVCC Ensembles. Two bands played: a jazz band and a Latin jazz band. They had various instruments such as a saxophone, cello, bass guitar, and tambourine as their timbre and a piano. The rhythm of the songs that were being played made you want to get up and dance! It was a fun and great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Things I'm listening To Right Now by Keith Kelly

I like a lot of different music. Though I play mostly jazz and avant-garde music, I grew up very much as part of the alternative scene of the 90s: Nirvana came of age when I was in middle-school, Live 105 was the modern rock station in the SF Bay Area that played everything from R.E.M. to Tori Amos to NIN to The Cure to Violet Femmes - it was awesome!!!  So, I like to think my musical taste is pretty diverse, and pretty good. But maybe not! HA! Anyway, here are 5 albums that I am into right now.

Sharon Van Etten

Album: Are We There? (2014)

Song:"Every Time the Sun Comes Up"

Singer-Songwriter, Americana, great harmony voices, thoughtful and punchy

S.Carey

Album: Range of Light (2014)

Song: "Crown The Pines"

Part of the band/creative team for band Bon Iver, saw him play live at the Crescent Ballroom last year (great show!), moody, brooding, lots of overlapping instrumentals

The Unfortunates

Album: (The Music That Inspired) The Unfortunates (2013)

Song: "Down and Out"

Played a great show at PVCC in November 2014, great blues-influenced music, wonderful voices, catchy melodies, makes you want to sing-a-long

Bruce Brubaker

Album: Time Curve (2009)

Song: "Etude No. 5"

Solo piano, haunting, playing the music of Phillip Glass, sparse 

Paul Desmond

Album: Easy Living (1965)

Song: "That Old Feeling"

Swinging, happening, one of the most luscious sounds on the alto saxophone, put it on and make a drink

A San Francisco Bay Area native, Keith currently resides in Phoenix, AZ - where he is Coordinator of Music Humanities and Performance at Paradise Valley Community College. Prior to this appointment, he was Assistant Professor/Coordinator of Jazz Studies at California State University - Stanislaus. Additionally, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Arizona State University, University of the Pacific, and Boston University (Online). Keith holds a DMA in Music Education (Jazz Studies) from Arizona State University. An in-demand woodwind doubler and improviser, he performs regularly with Running From Bears, Static Announcements and The Scorpion Decides.