April 18, 2007

Don Stapleson and jazz band perform

(St. Mary's City, MD) April 18, 2007 - St. Mary's College of Maryland's (SMCM) Jazz Band, directed by SMCM jazz faculty member and saxophonist Don Stapleson, will perform on Friday, April 20, at 8 p.m. in St. Mary's Hall. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the music department at 240-895-4498.

The Jazz Band will be joined by the SMCM Jazz Combo, an ensemble also led by Stapleson. This group has performed in the Alba Italy Music Festival and will appear there again this spring.

Guest vocalist Eric McAllister will join the band on "Beyond the Sea" and "Come Fly with Me" and trumpeter Michael Adams will solo on the ballad "I Remember Clifford." The group will also perform Benny Goodman's hit "Don't Be that Way" and music by Duke Ellington and Luis Bonfa, among others.

In addition to his work with the College, director Don Stapleson has also performed with the orchestra at the Folger Theater during the Interact Theater productions of Noel Coward's Private Lives and Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore. Stapleson has recorded music for America's Most Wanted, the National Geographic Special The Inca Ice Maiden, The Serval Cats and Realms of the Deep.

Stapleson attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds degrees from St. Mary's College of Maryland and the University of Maryland.

St. Mary's College of Maryland is ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review and Kiplinger's. With roots going back to 1840, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering the academic excellence of a top private college with the openness and affordability of public education.