Jazz Festival

 

February 11, 2025

The 2024 Snow College Jazz Festival features special guest artist, Jeff Jarvis.  The festival will be held at Snow College in the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts on the Snow College campus.  This one-day festival celebrates jazz through performances, clinics and special performances by our amazing guest artists.  High School, junior high school, and middle school jazz ensembles, jazz combos, and vocal jazz groups are invited to perform.  The festival is non-competitive, and each band has a performance slot followed by an in person clinic with all of the guest artists/faculty.  It is a great way to prepare your band for upcoming adjudicated performances.  All jazz enthusiasts are invited to attend.  The Festival is hosted by Dr. Steven Erickson, Director of Jazz Studies, Snow College.  The cost is $150 per group/school.

High Schools, Junior High Schools and Middle Schools are invited to participate
Big Bands, Jazz Combos, and Vocal Jazz groups are invited to participate

Register and pay for the JCU Jazz Festival

 

Festival Adjudicators

• Professor Steven Erickson

Steven Erickson is originally from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.  He is an accomplished pianist, arranger, and composer in both the classical and jazz styles.  Steve studied piano performance at Brigham Young University (BMus., 1987), Rice University (MMus., 1992), and the University of Kansas.  He served as the director of jazz studies at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri from 1996 to 1997. 

In 1997 he joined the US Air Force, performing with Air Force Bands for 20 years, including 18 years with the premier jazz ensemble of the Air Force, “The Airmen of Note.”  While with the Note, he performed for numerous tours, jazz festivals and music conventions, recorded 10 CDs, and played on more than 30 radio and television broadcasts, including Jazz Heritage Series broadcasts with such guest artists as Clark Terry, Doc Severinsen, Nicolas Payton, Phil Woods, Kenny Garrett, Walt Weiskopf, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ron Carter, Al Jarreau, Kurt Elling, New York Voices, and many others. He also produced 29 big band and orchestral arrangements for the Air Force band.  

After retiring from the military in 2017, Steve served as an adjunct faculty member at Utah Valley University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, BYU Idaho, and Snow College, and was the recipient of the Utah Arts Festival Commission for Jazz Arrangers in 2020.  He has served as clinician and adjudicator at jazz festivals in Utah and Idaho, and regularly performs with bands and artists in Salt Lake City and Utah Valley.