Jazz Commissions

The Utah Arts Festival will present the works of new up and coming jazz composers, Jay Lawrence and Steve Lindeman. The pieces will be performed by the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra on Friday, June 26, at 8pm on the Festival Stage.

Jay Lawrence

Celebrated musician Jay Lawrence has been enjoying a diverse career as a performing artist, composer, arranger, clinician and adjudicator. His vast professional experience began at age 15 in Nevada showrooms where he worked for celebrities such as Liza Minelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick, Roy Clark, Ann-Margret, Gladys Knight, Lou Rawls, Loretta Lynn, The Coasters and others. He has toured with Liberace, Chris LeDoux, The Osmond Brothers, James Moody and Enoch Train.

Jay has many movie sound track, film trailer and television score credits such as Sandlot, Xena Warrior Princess, Gettysburg, U-571 etc. He has performed in concert with Brian Bromberg, Pete Christlieb, Cyrus Chestnut, Hank Jones, Phil Woods, Eddie Daniels, Milt Jackson and many others. In addition Mr. Lawrence has recorded more than 80 albums, including recordings with Joey DeFrancesco, Mike Stern, and Bob Mintzer.

Currently Jay is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Utah, and is a member of the adjunct faculties at Snow College, BYU Idaho, BYU Provo and Utah Valley University.

Steve Lindeman

Steve Lindeman is a professor of music at Brigham Young University, where he teaches courses in theory and jazz studies. Born and raised in Columbus, Indiana, he earned a degree in jazz piano at Indiana University.

After moving to New York City in the late 1970s, he obtained graduate degrees in music theory (Queens College, City University of New York), and musicology (Rutgers University). He has studied jazz piano and improvisation with David Baker, Barry Harris, Ronnie Matthews, Kenny Barron, Jack Reilly, Rebecca Mauléon-Santana, Tamir Hendelman, and Stefan Karlsson.

He has studied composition and arranging with Jim McNeely at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, Bernard Heiden, Juan Orrego-Salas, David Baker, Hugo Weisgal, Murray Boren, Tamir Hendelman, and Stefan Karlsson.

He is also active as a theorist and musicologist, and has published books and articles concerned with the concerto, 19th century composer-pianists, and Miles Davis. Steve is active as a composer and keyboardist in the Salt Lake City area.

Jazz Commission Coordinator
Henry Wolking