Classical to Jazz Concert to Raise Talented Music Education Funds

There's a well-kept secret in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, and we want everyone to know about it!  The school district has world-renown musicians, professional jazz performers, Broadway-style singers and Emmy Award winners teaching our children every day.
 
Now the public can hear them in action.   These teachers will be performing in concert and raising money for the school district’s Talented Music Program for students during the Evening of Music:  Classical to Jazz Concert from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, February 23, at the Manship Theatre's Shaw Center for the Arts. 

Teacher/performers will include:
Mike Esneault:  An acclaimed composer, pianist, arranger and musician who has performed and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, Frank Morgan, Pete Fountain and many more.  He won an Emmy Award for his score of the PBS documentary “Atchafalaya Houseboat.”  He also worked with Terence Blanchard on motion picture arrangements for the films “Original Sin,” “Caveman’s Valentine” and “People I Know.”

Jamie Hipp:  A Musical Theatre graduate who has been an actor/singer/dancer aboard the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder cruise ships in the roles of princesses and fairies in Disney musicals.  She has done stand-in work for Elizabeth Banks in the movie “W” and was the featured singer at “Wands and Whimsey,” a benefit for the St. Nicholas Center for Autism in Lake Charles.  Hipp also performed as Maria in the Baton Rouge Little Theater’s production of “Sound of Music” and Tess in “Crazy for You.”

Dr. YongHao Pan:  A native of Shanghai who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music from The Julliard School and a doctorate in Music from Louisiana State University. He has played double bass since the age of 13 and has performed in prestigious concert halls all over the world, including more than 80 concerts in Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble as Principle Double Bassist.  He has had an international career also as a soloist and orchestra musician.

Troy Davis:  A highly regarded jazz drummer who studied with the great clarinetist and innovator Alvin Batiste at Southern University before heading to New York in 1986.  He joined a band led by vocalist Betty Carter before moving on to groups playing with trumpeters Roy Hargrove, Marlon Jordan and Terence Blanchard, with whom he’s also recorded a half-dozen recordings and served in his Latin America quintet tour.  He has been tapped to work with jazz greats like Joe Henderson, Kenny Burrell, Milt Hinton, Toots Thielmans, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and many others.
 
The teachers will be joined by some Talented student musicians, and the concert features jazz vocalist Stephanie Jordan.  Tickets are being sold at the Manship Theatre, www.manshiptheatre.org. 
 
For more information, call Sherry Scardina at (225) 929-8646.