Illustration by JENNY YURSHANSKY/Daily Bruin
By Tamar Boyadijan
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA Gluck Fellows Jazz Combo performs its toe-tapping jazz
music all over Los Angeles, but students may know the group from
its performance last Wednesday in front of Powell Library.
The jazz combo is one of several ensembles in the Gluck Fellows
Performance Groups program. The program was established in 1996
through a grant from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation. It provides
scholarships and promotes the artistic growth of music students and
brings entertainment to people who may not otherwise have the
opportunity to experience live music. Together, the groups in the
program have reached more than 23,000 people throughout Southern
California.
“Most of the audiences we play for respond really
well,” said fourth-year music student Sean Castle, the jazz
combo’s saxophone player. “They are really energetic
about our music.”
The UCLA Gluck Fellows Jazz Combo has played at various homeless
shelters, retirement homes, boys clubs and elementary schools, as
well as on the UCLA campus.
Recently the combo performed during an awards ceremony at a
homeless shelter in Venice. The ceremony was held to recognize
homeless people who had made the most progress in improving their
lives.
“Playing at the homeless shelter was a very powerful
experience,” said first-year music student Miguel Sawaya,
bass player in the jazz combo.
“I think we were really appreciated by the people who were
listening. I felt really happy to be part of something that was
celebrating the achievements of these individuals.”
Gluck Fellows performance groups are not limited to jazz combos;
they include a string quartet, a piano trio, a woodwind quintet, a
brass quintet, a vocal ensemble and selected soloists. Through
these performance groups, some of UCLA’s most outstanding
musicians are able to perform together and share their talents with
the public.
Students are also able to share their musical knowledge through
enrichment performances for elementary, middle, and high school
students and through demonstrations for masters classes in
music.
In these performances, the jazz combo often plays cartoon
melodies instead of the jazz standards they play for other
groups.
“We try to find tunes that will be more appropriate for
the audience that we are playing for and (songs) they can relate
to,” Sawaya said.
The combo also makes an effort to put on interesting and
educational shows that involve more than just performing music.
“When we play for little kids, it’s hard to get them
to pay attention, so we spend a lot of time showing them the
instruments and how to play (the instruments),” said
fourth-year music student Ross Grant, the group’s
guitarist.
“We will play “˜Sesame Street’ songs,
“˜The Flintstones,’ TV theme songs, and songs that they
can sing along to,” continued Grant. “Sometimes we even
get kids to come up and play with us if they are
musicians.”
The Gluck Fellows performance groups give students the chance to
gain performance experience and hone their musical skills.
“It’s a really great program because it gives
students the opportunity to play professional type concerts (and
it’s a) good way to supplement income for tuition,”
Grant said.
Sawaya agreed with Grant on the importance of the program.
“If musicians are putting their hearts into what they are
doing then all music has the ability to connect people and lift up
their hearts,” Sawaya said.
MUSIC: The next performance for the UCLA Gluck
Jazz Combo will be at the L.A. Children’s Hospital,
Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.