Watch the Concert on Zoom starting at 7:30pm on Friday, May 14
Doug Leibinger, Director
Featuring Special Guests
We want to lift up those talented women in music who are bringing excellence to the stage (in person and virtual) and who continue to help shape music across the world and across genres.
For women in jazz, our Jazz Program will be honoring them by performing a Virtual Jazz Concert featuring (along with our SSU Jazz Orchestra) our very own SSU Women’s Jazz Ensemble, with special guests Jeanne Geiger (on trombone), Nadje Noordhuis (on trumpet/flugelhorn), and faculty member Kasey Knudsen (on saxophone).
Mark down Friday, May 14 at 7:30pm on your calendar and don’t miss out on this spectacular event!
Nadje Noordhuis
Described as "one of the most compelling voices to emerge on her instrument in recent years" (Dan Bilawksy, All about Jazz), Australian-born based trumpeter/composer Nadje Noordhuis possesses one of the most unforgettably lyrical voices in modern music. Her deeply-felt, clarion tone and evocative compositional gift meld classical rigor, jazz expression, and world music accents into a sound that is distinctively her own.
Noordhuis was one of ten semi-finalists in the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition and was selected as a Carnegie Hall Young Artist in 2012. Based in New York since 2003, she is a member of the multiple Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, Grammy-nominated Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and the Grammy-nominated Anat Cohen Tentet.
She has three albums of original compositions on her record label, Little Mystery Records. Her debut jazz quintet album featuring Grammy nominees Sara Caswell and Geoffrey Keezer was released to critical acclaim in 2012. Her 2015 contemplative duo album of miniatures with pianist Luke Howard has garnered much international attention, with multi-million streams on Spotify and YouTube. Her 2017 album with vibraphonist/synthesist James Shipp was premiered at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in Australia.
Her new genre-bending quintet with Maeve Gilchrist (celtic harp), Jesse Lewis (electric guitar), Ike Sturm (electric bass), and James Shipp (synthesizers, percussion) coolly blends acoustic and electric instruments, seamlessly weaving her melodious compositions with threads of improvisation. Featuring her pure toned trumpet with electronic effects, this group released their album recorded live in Switzerland, as part of a vinyl-only box set on Newvelle Records in 2019. This group is currently working on their next album, slated for release in 2021, with support from a Chamber Music America Performance Plus grant.
Jeanne Geiger
* Trombonist * Composer * Arranger * Music Educator *
Jeanne Geiger, a Bay Area native, is proud to be a member of the music scene for over 20 years. She completed a B.A. in music performance (2002) and M.A. in music composition (2007) from California State University, East Bay. She has performed with numerous groups including: Sheila E, Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy, Deltron 3030, Lyrics Born, Green Day, Ozomatli, Joan Osborne, 10,000 Maniacs, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Gladys Knight, The Coup, The Dells, Roy Ayers, The O’Jays, Jazz Mafia, Dave Eshelman’s Jazz Garden Big Band, Ray Brown Great Big Band, Dave Brubeck Big Band, Maza Cote, Michael Feinstein Jazz Orchestra, Johnny Mathis Orchestra, JSoul, Brass Mafia, The Uptones, Dynamic, among many others. She has also toured and/or recorded with her current groups: Birdland All-Stars, Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy, Sheila E, Deltron 3030, and more.
Her compositions have been recorded and performed by schools such as CSU Fresno, Diablo Valley College, Los Medanos College, Adam’s Middle School, and CSU East Bay. She has played for many different theatrical works including SHN’s Broadway productions of Anything Goes, A Chorus Line, Annie, White Christmas, as well as numerous Broadway productions for over 10 years with the Contra Costa Musical Theater Company.
Recent composing/arranging projects have included: Joan Osborne’s Soul Revue at Stern Grove, Tommy Igoe Groove Conspiracy: The Music of Steely Dan, Deltron 3030 Live Orchestra, Roy Ayers with the Jazz Mafia Symphony, Jazz Mafia Symphony (Emperor Norton Suite), Lyrics Born (Tribute to Curtis Mayfield & James Brown), Heartical Roots, Fay Carol with Adams Middle School, Zoe Presley with the Bay Area Composers Big Band.
Other studio work has included Sekai No Owari produced by Dan the Automator, The New Broadway Cast Recording of A Chorus Line, Tiger Club, Rupa and the April Fishes, Anais Croze’s The Love Album produced by Dan the Automator, U-Roy, and Pinhead Gunpowder.
She recently was an instructor of Jazz Trombone at CSU East Bay.
Jeanne Geiger is the musician contractor, sheet-music arranger, librarian, and trombonist leading the Deltron 3030 orchestra.
Kasey Knudsen
Kasey Knudsen is a San Francisco-based saxophonist, composer, and educator and leader of the KK Group, a septet focusing on original music and arrangements. She also co-leads The Permanent Wave Ensemble, an octet dedicated to performing and arranging the music of Carla Bley; The RW3 Trio along with bay area drummer Jon Arkin; and The Holly Martins with vocalist Lorin Benedict and guitarist Eric Vogler.
Kasey earned her BA in Jazz Composition from the Berklee College of Music where she was a featured composer for the Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestra and the Joanne Langione Dance Company. She was commissioned by the Jazzschool’s 2005 Emerging Artist Series to write and perform a new work and in 2007, she was commissioned by Intersection For The Arts in collaboration with the De Young Museum to write and perform a piece inspired by the work of visual artist Deborah Oropallo.
Kasey can be seen performing with a number of ensembles and bandleaders including Evan Francis and Spaceheater, Tune-Yards, Lisa Mezzacappa, Ted-Brinkley’s Horn Blower Cruise Ship, Graham Connah, Nathan Clevenger, Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky, pianist Jarrett Cherner, Michael Coleman’s Schumann’s Humanns, the Bay Area Composer’s Collective Orchestra, guitarist Q Morrow, Rob Ewing’s Disappear Incompletely, and more. She has also shared the stage with the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Realistic Orchestra, The Slip, Joe Bagale and the Dirty Workshop, Adam Shulman Group, The Industrial Jazz Group, Brass Bows and Beats, Terrence Brewer, Rova Saxophone Quartet’s Sax Cloud, and many others.
Kasey is a member of Stanford's Jazz Week faculty since in 2010 and she also teaches at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, CA and for the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley. She has served as a judge and clinician at the Reno Jazz Festival.