Northwest Missouri State University’s jazz ensembles are taking their instruments off campus again this spring to perform at a Maryville hangout.

The concert featuring Northwest’s Studio Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble begins at 7 p.m. Monday, April 8, at The Pub. The performance groups are under the direction of Dr. William Richardson, a professor of music at Northwest.

The Pub is an entertainment center and bar located at 414 N. Main St. in Maryville. The concert is free, and The Pub admits adults 21 and over.

“We are excited to share some amazing music with the public,” Richardson said. “Both jazz groups have spent an extraordinary amount of quality time preparing music from many diverse genres, and I am proud of our students for working so diligently this semester. We promise that the audience will have a great time.”

The ensembles will perform a variety of pieces, including “I Ain’t Gonna Ask No More” by composer Toshiko Akiyoshi, featuring Northwest Assistant Professor of Music Dr. William Sutton on tuba. The program also will feature numerous student soloists within each ensemble.

Under the direction of Richardson, the jazz ensembles perform multiple concerts on the Northwest campus annually, and the Jazz Ensemble regularly tours Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. The Jazz Ensemble also has performed at the Missouri Music Educators Association and Nebraska Music Educators Association conventions.

In 2020, the Jazz Ensemble was named the “Outstanding University Jazz Ensemble” at the University of Kansas Jazz Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. The ensemble also has been invited to perform in June at the 2024 Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, marking the third consecutive year the Northwest Jazz Ensemble will be featured at the event.

To learn more about musical ensembles at Northwest, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/finearts/music/ensembles/.