Composer and trumpet player Dr. John Daversa will visit Lebanon Valley College Friday, April 15 for a student presentation at 4 p.m. and concert performance at 7:30 in Lutz Hall in the Bertha Brossman Blair Music Center. Dr. Daversa will perform the concert with Dr. Justin Morell, LVC assistant professor of music. Dr. Daversa will frame his student presentation and concert based on his experience in jazz composing and arranging.
In 1996, Dr. Daversa founded the John Daversa Progressive Big Band, which is highly influential in the ensemble jazz world. Their first studio album won both Best in Show and Awards of Excellence in Creativity and Originality and Production in the Global Music Awards. Dr. Daversa also leads the John Daversa Small Band.
In recognition of Dr. Daversa’s composing and performing skills, he has been invited to appear around the world. He has performed on television, including on “The Today Show,” and “Late Nite with David Letterman,” as well as at numerous legendary festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has also performed and recorded with high-profile musicians such as Michael Bublé, Sheryl Crow, and many others.
Tony Gieske of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Dr. Daversa “gets sounds to come out of his little red trumpet like you never heard. The band itself ditto, as if Duke Ellington and Bélla Bartόk had come down from on high and written some brilliant 21st century music for a big band of Berklee post-graduate superstars.”
Dr. Daversa is the department chair of studio music and jazz at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. While visiting LVC, he will teach composition students about what he has learned from his experience, along with a question and answer session, before performing in the evening concert with Dr. Morell, a lifelong friend.
The two musicians grew up together in Los Angeles and began their professional careers in high school. For a short time, the duo also co-led a band and operated and owned a recording studio and production company in Burbank, Calif. They have played on several of each other’s recordings.
During their concert at LVC, Drs. Daversa and Morell will perform a mix of personal compositions and a few songs from jazz composers such as Richie Beirach and Johnny Green.