41st annual Jazz Spectacular

Michigan State University’s Jazz Spectacular returns this weekend for its 41^st year, featuring live music performances, a daylong high school band competition, swing dancing and a special Finale Concert with Marquis Hill, an internationally renowned trumpeter, composer and bandleader.

The festival kicks off 7:30 p.m. Thursday (April 20) with performances by four MSU jazz nonet groups at the Fairchild Theatre. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (60 and over) and free for students and children under 18.

Friday evening at 8 p.m., the crowd-favorite Swing Dance offers the chance to get up and move at the Music Building’s Murray Hall. MSU jazz orchestras, led by Jazz Studies director Rodney Whitaker and College of Music faculty member Anthony Stanco, will play tunes by jazz greats. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and free for students and children.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival will run 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, with high school jazz bands performing music by Duke Ellington and other big-band composers for a panel of Jazz at Lincoln Center clinicians and jazz professionals. The event is free and will take place throughout the Billman Music Pavilion.

The top-ranking band of the day will open the Finale Concert 8 p.m. Saturday at the Fairchild Theatre, which features performances by MSU’s Jazz Orchestra I, Hill and other special guests. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $15 for students and children. 

To purchase tickets, visit music.msu.edu.