Evening of Jazz Marks Dr. Steve Bingham's Retirement With Guest Artists and Percussion

November 7, 2019

November 7, 2019 - Santa Fe College Music Professor Dr. Steven Lee Bingham is retiring at the end of fall term 2019 and will conduct his last concert with the SF Big Band, "Evening of Jazz," in the Fine Arts Hall at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019. Featured performers include guest artists Dr. Russell Robinson (vocals) and professor Scott Wilson (trumpet, electronic valve instrument and piano) as well as the Santa Fe College (SF) Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Garrett Hecker. Dr. David Smith will assist Bingham with conducting duties.

Tickets are $15 for adults; $9 for University of Florida students with a UF identification card, seniors over 60, and children 12 and under; $5 for SF students with an SF identification card; and free for SF faculty, staff and retirees with a valid SF identification card. For information or tickets, call 352-395-4181 or visit sfcollege.edu/finearts.

"Evening of Jazz" marks the 15 year that "Doc B" (Bingham) has directed the SF Big Band. "Conducting the Big Band has been a rewarding experience as I have built the program from near ground zero to what you see and hear today," Bingham said. "I will miss the students, teachers and staff here at Santa Fe College, but I feel after 80 years of combined teaching between my wife and myself, it's time to do something else."

Guest artist Dr. Russell Robinson is Emeritus Professor of Music Education and has made over 300 appearances as a conductor, speaker, consultant and presenter nationally and internationally (throughout Asia last month), including conducting at Carnegie Hall five times. He was inducted into the Florida Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2016 and is an author, composer and arranger with over 500 publications in print.

For "Evening of Jazz," Robinson will be singing "All of Me," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "Route 66," "Fly Me to the Moon," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "Stardust." Vocalists and SF Music Professors Lynn Sandefur and Jessica Van Leer will join Robinson for duets, Sandefur on "Stardust" and Van Leer on "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." SF Dance Professor Sarah Harkness-Sebastian will choreograph and perform a dance to "I've Got You Under My Skin."

Bingham describes guest artist Scott Wilson, Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Florida, as "one of the rising stars of jazz, both as a performer and as a pedagogue. In addition to his dynamic live and recorded performances on trumpet, he is regarded as one of the world's foremost proponents of the electronic valve instrument (EVI)." The EVI is an electronic musical wind instrument with playing techniques similar to those of a trumpet.

For "Evening of Jazz," Wilson will be performing in many of the following selections: "Groovin' Hard"; "Tenor Madness"; "Malagueña"; "Lullaby of Birdland"; "The Jazz Police"; and "'Round Midnight."

"I dedicate this concert to my best friend and supporter, Dr. Hal Gene Bingham, and my mother, Mary Anne," Steve Bingham concluded.

For more information about the concert, call Bingham at 352-395-5313.