Smith was lead trombonist with the Woody Herman Orchestra for many years. Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn and George Shearing, and is featured on several recordings, including My Buddy, World Class, Live at the Aurex JazzFest, and Live at Concord. He is chairperson of the Jazz Studies Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Sunny Wilkinson, a widely acclaimed vocalist from Okemos, Michigan, will be the Sunday clinician in the Aquinas College Art and Music Center at 5 p.m. She has performed with the Count Basie Band, Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, Mark Murphy, Milt Hinton, Marvin Stamm, Bill Mays, and Bill Watrous. Wilkinson serves as the chairperson for the International Association of Jazz Educators Woman's Caucus, and teaches jazz voice at Michigan State University and Western Michigan University.
Tickets are only available at the door.
A complete schedule of events will follow. Consistently ranked one of the top liberal arts colleges in the Midwest by U.S. News and World Report , Aquinas College offers an approach to learning and living that teaches students unlimited ways of seeing the world. Founded in 1886 by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, the College's Dominican tradition of working, service and life-long learning remains alive today in a diverse student body. Students from 22 states and 15 foreign countries are enrolled in Aquinas College undergraduate or graduate programs. Within six months of graduation, nearly all graduates are in full-time jobs, enrolled in professional schools of law, medicine, or dentistry, or in a master or doctoral program.