Friday, April 21, 2023
NIC Director of Choirs Max Mendez performs with students on Dec. 1 in the lobby of Boswell Hall on NIC’s Coeur d’Alene campus.
The North Idaho College Cardinal Voices and Jazz Ensemble will perform the Spring Jazz Concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 25 at Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center on NIC’s Coeur d’Alene Campus.
The performance is free and open to the public.
NIC’s final jazz concert of the year will feature musical performances by Cardinal Voices directed by NIC Director of Choirs Max Mendez and the NIC Jazz Ensemble directed by NIC Director of Bands Bryan Hannaford.
Cardinal Voices will present a high-powered musical set based on the music of the 2000s.
“Get ready for a night of classic throwbacks to songs you all know,” Mendez said. “The group is going to have a lot of fun with this concert, and I think that’s really going to come out in their performance.”
Cardinal Voices, performing under the band name “Y 2 Cardinal,” will kick off the concert with “Somebody I Used To Know” by Gotye, the No. 1 hit on the 2012 Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts.
Cardinal Voices, a commercial music ensemble, focuses on performing studio-quality popular music. It provides an ensemble atmosphere emphasizing small group dynamics, ensemble singing/performance, solo performance, songwriting and arranging, all within versatile musical styles.
Look forward to an arrangement of the 2000 rock hit “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down. Cardinal Voices will also perform “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance and the 2004 country hit “Bless the Broken Road” made famous by Rascal Flatts.
“We have so much great music from the early aughts; I’m hoping that the crowd gets involved singing along to these major hits,” Mendez said. “We should have named this concert ‘Now That’s What I Call Music!’”
The NIC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Hannaford, will perform a mixed set displaying a great range of styles and influences. Some of the jazz tunes feature Latin roots, like “Vientos de Cambio” by Paul Baker, which will captivate the audience with its fun and groovy rhythms.
Other songs center around various methods of swing. The song “727 South Broad Street” is in New Orleans-style jazz, while the more upbeat piece “Crossing the Boulevard” takes roots from classic big bands and is bound to have the audience trying to keep up, Hannaford said.
The Jazz Ensemble will also play a big-band version of Victor Feldman’s “Joshua,” originally recorded by Miles Davis on his 1963 album “Seven Steps to Heaven” arranged by Mark Taylor.
“Our group is playing with a lot of different ideas,” Hannaford said. “It’s almost like a culture shock.”
The various expressional pieces offer a truly unique and unmissable performance, even featuring an arrangement of the classic Soundgarden hit “Black Hole Sun” by James Smiley to end the night.
“The late Chris Cornell probably never imagined this song being played on stage through a jazz band,” Hannaford said.
For more information, contact NIC Director of Choirs Max Mendez at (208) 769-3275 or max.mendez@nic.edu; or NIC Director of Bands Bryan Hannaford at (208) 769-3258 or bryan.hannaford@nic.edu.