SPF 2022: Saturday Afternoon Educational Offerings

6^th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival

The Solo Jazz Piano Festival is one of the solid cornerstones of the VJC’s programming. Now in its 6th year, it has presented some of the world’s top pianists including NEA Jazz Masters Toshiko Akiyoshi and Joanne Brackeen; jazz legends Stanley Cowell, Luis Perdomo, Helen Sung, Kirk Lightsey, Orrin Evans and George Cables; emerging artists have included Christian Sands, Julius Rodriguez, Miro Sprague, Franz Robert, Kris Adams and Craig Taborn. Renowned piano-educators David Berkman and Kenny Werner have also been presented.

Because the piano is an instrument that has an expansive range, it conveys harmony, melody and rhythm all at the same time. One of the greatest piano legends of all time, Oscar Peterson, stated: “I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.”

Emerging Artist Bios

Andrew Wilcox
UMass graduate student Andrew Wilcox began his studies in the Worcester Massachusetts region with instructors Dick Odgren, Rich Ardizzone, and Tucker Antell. After high school, Wilcox continued his studies at the Hartt School where he worked with renowned musicians including pianists Rick Germanson, and Zaccai Curtis, saxophonists Javon Jackson and Abraham Burton, trombonist Steve Davis, and bassist Nat Reeves. Wilcox also has studied with Orrin Evans, Stanley Cowell, Ralph Peterson, and Emery Austin Smith. By the end of his time at the Hartt School, he had established himself as a young up and coming musician within the Hartford area, which included making himself a mainstay at Black-Eyed Sally’s as a bandleader, sideman, steward and listener. He can currently be heard playing throughout the New England Region performing with his trio and sextet or as a sideman with a number of musicians including Leland Baker, Yoron Israel, Haneef Nelson, Ed Byrne, Rob Zapulla, Ed Fast, Jonathan Barber, The Glenn Miller Orchestra and the New London Big Band. Wilcox has had the opportunity to play numerous venues and festivals in the greater New England area.

Roella Oloro
Roella Oloro is a British-born composer and multi-instrumentalist of Nigerian and Jamaican descent. She is a prime example of a young, engaged, artist who is exploring the concept of what it means to be a performer in this new era – composing using new sounds and writing lyrics that express her activism. Oloro developed her musical abilities as a member of the Pentecostal Church, playing in regional gospel choirs, and studying piano, clarinet, alto saxophone and bass guitar. She studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and was involved with London’s vibrant jazz scene, performing with bands like the Tomorrow’s Warriors Female Frontline, and attending jams at Ronnie Scott’s. In 2018, Oloro was awarded a scholarship to take part in Berklee College of Music’s 5-week Women’s Performance Program. At the end of the session she received another scholarship to attend Berklee’s undergraduate program where she became involved with their Jazz and Gender Justice Institute. Orloro is now studying with NEA Jazz Masters Terri Lyne-Carrington and Joanne Brackeen, with Grammy nominated saxophonists Tia Fuller and Melissa Aldana and with Helen Sung and Camille Thurman. Oloro has appeared with the Jazz and Gender Justice Institute on WGBH’s “Basic Black” and was a semi-finalist in BBC’s “Young Musician” contest; she has also appeared on British TV as part of the “British Jazz Explosion.”

Streaming on our website and on the VJC Facebook page