258 JAZZ PIANIST GERI ALLEN MAKES FEB. 26 CONCERT STOP IN MURFREESBORO

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 31, 2008
CONTACT: Tim Musselman, (615) 898-2493

JAZZ PIANIST GERI ALLEN MAKES FEB. 26 CONCERT STOP IN MURFREESBORO
Free Performance Features Player at the Forefront of Jazz Creativity, Aliquo Says

(MURFREESBORO)—Award-winning jazz pianist Geri Allen will perform a free and open concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
"Allen is currently one of the top jazz pianists in the world,” said Don Aliquo, coordinator of jazz studies and professor of saxophone at MTSU. “She has been at the forefront of some of the most creative jazz to be performed in recent years.”
The evening event will feature Allen performing a solo piano concert. She will also be conducting a master class in conjunction with the concert.
A Detroit native and a graduate of that city’s famous Cass Technical High School, Allen graduated from Howard University, where she also served as assistant professor of music. During that period, the university honored her with both Distinguished Alumni and
Distinguished Professor honors.
Allen, who is presently associate professor of jazz and contemporary improvisation at the University of Michigan, holds a Master's Degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh. She is married to trumpeter Wallace Roney, a mother, composer, producer, educator and bandleader.
Additionally, she has been hailed as “a jazz pianist who dares to follow an unmarked road” by the New York Times and was honored for “her extensive music education and a devotion to the swinging roots of jazz” by the Los Angeles Times.
“We are very lucky to have an artist of this caliber on our campus,” said Aliquo.
In addition to the MTSU music school, the Feb. 26 concert will be sponsored by the Black History Month Committee, National Women’s History Month and the June Anderson Women’s Center at MTSU.
For more information on this and other events in the MTSU School of Music, please visit www.mtsumusic.com, www.geriallen.com or call 615-898-2493.



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