Jazz Duo to Perform April 17 at UW

The University of Wyoming Department of Music will present an evening of jazz with pianist Ben Markley and saxophonist Peter Sommer Monday, April 17.

Sommer, saxophone professor at Colorado State University, and Markley, director of UW Jazz Studies, will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The two will present a program of standards from the Great American Songbook, including music by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.

Markley, an associate professor, teaches jazz piano and improvisation classes. He also directs the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble and the UW Jazz Festival.

Markley is active as a composer and arranger, with many big band and vocal jazz charts published through the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press. Compositions from his first two albums earned him ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards. His album “Ari’s Fun-House” was recently honored by DownBeat magazine as one of the best recordings of 2022.

He has performed with Brian Lynch, Greg Osby, Eddie Henderson, Terell Stafford, George Garzone and John Fedchock. He regularly performs in the Denver area and along the Front Range.

Sommer has contributed his energetic and graceful playing and creative spirit to a wide variety of musical projects -- ranging from mainstream bebop to classic and contemporary concert music to avant-garde improvisations -- at venues across the nation and around the world.

He has released six albums as a leader, and he also is active as a concert saxophonist. He has performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony and the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he has been a featured jazz soloist and performer at numerous national and international conferences.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.