Jazz in the Czech Republic
This past August, three Moravian University music majors and three music faculty members traveled to the Czech Republic near the Moravian homeland in Central Europe to participate in a jazz workshop and record a CD on an international record label.
Neil Wetzel, director of jazz studies and music department chair, organized the trip and the recording session. Wetzel is currently the director of big bands at the Karel Velebny Summer Jazz Workshop held in Frydlant in the Czech Republic. This is the 11th year that Wetzel and artist lecturer Gary Rissmiller (jazz drum-set instructor at Moravian) have taught at this popular central European jazz workshop. Skip Wilkins, another artist lecturer who teaches jazz piano at Moravian, has taught at Frydlant for 10 years.
This year, the faculty were accompanied by two current students and a recent alum: Ron Bogart ’17 (drum set), Pat Kerssen ’18 (jazz piano), and Fred Barr ’16 (saxophone). The group traversed the Czech Republic for two weeks, visiting and playing in jazz clubs in Prague and attending/teaching classes at the Summer Jazz Workshop. The workshop culminated in a faculty concert followed by student ensemble performances in the historic Frydlant Castle (circa 1200 AD).
Next stop—a recording session with the “Frydlant 5:00 Big Band” in the Czesky Rozhlas Studios (Czech Radio, Prague). The group included students and teachers from the workshop, and the recording will be released on the ARTA jazz recording label (based in Prague). The band was led by Wetzel and Rissmiller, and our Moravian students played on some of the cuts.
“The trip was a life-changing experience,” says Bogart, “especially to see how this American musical genre translates internationally.” Bogart attended the workshop and recording session in partial fulfillment of a summer internship that he completed under Wetzel’s supervision. He applied for and was awarded a generous $1,000 Alumni Summer Internship Stipend through the Center for Career and Civic Engagement at Moravian. The award helped to fund some of the expenses of the internship (such as airfare and lodging in Europe).
Kerssen felt that, “it was very interesting to see the differences between the Czech and American cultures, especially in the residents’ day-to-day lives.”
Adds Barr: “As a recent alum, I found it educational and illuminating to work with prominent and successful European musicians.”
The CD is scheduled for release sometime in late 2016 or early 2017 and features two of Wetzel’s compositions. “It was especially gratifying to have our own students on this CD,” says Wetzel. “They had the opportunity to play with world-class musicians and also get some real-life recording credits on an international recording label. This kind of relationship with Moravian’s past and present provides our community the opportunity to reflect on its past and future.”—Neil Wetzel, associate professor of music