Free Family Music Series: Sing along with The MacPhail Jazz Combo
Join Sing Play Learn with MacPhail® for a sing along! The MacPhail Faculty Jazz Combo featuring Brian Nichols on piano, Justin Hartke on bass, Paul Babcock on drums, and Greg Keel on saxophone with Teacher Cari Gregerson and Teacher Jane Tate on vocals will play your favorite tunes from the Sing Play Learn with MacPhail® library. Before and after each concert, kids of all ages get the chance to meet the musicians, explore making their own music with instruments, make a rainbow ribbon wand to move to the music, and have a snack. Come play and sing along with us!
Performers
Piano instructor Bryan Nichols joined the MacPhail faculty in 2005 but has more than 12 years of teaching experience. Bryan is one of the premier young jazz pianists in the United States and beyond, having performed at national and international festivals as well as regularly at local Twin Cities venues, like the Artists’ Quarter and the Dakota Jazz Club with his own bands as well as other musicians. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2010-11 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Performing Musicians, one of the highest honors a Minnesota musician can receive.
Justin Hartke, bass, is MacPhail’s Student Services Placement and Data Administrator. He is also a member of the children’s music focused trio, The Jolly Pops.
Paul Babcock has over 25 years experience teaching percussion/drum set. He enjoys working with students of all backgrounds to discover their passions for music and percussion to see how far they can go on this exciting journey.
Paul developed the MacPhail percussion ensemble Rimshots!, who have performed across the United States and abroad.
Greg Keel, saxophone, has 32-plus years of experience, teaching saxophone, clarinet, and jazz flute to students of all ages as well as performing with artists such as Aretha Franklin, The O’Jays, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, Fifth Dimension, Frankie Valli, Lou Rawls, Bobby Vinton, and The Temptations. He enjoys instructing students in all styles of music, but has a passion for jazz. Greg’s high school and college students have received recognition from Down Beat Magazine’s yearly Student Jazz Awards and are frequently selected as members of the Minnesota All-State Jazz Ensembles and the Dakota Jazz Ensemble.
Cari Gregerson, vocals, began her teaching career in 1998. After 15 years of teaching elementary and middle school band, she switched gears to early childhood music. In 2009, Cari started teaching with the Sing Play Learn department. Over the years Cari has had the opportunity to teach Music for Babies, Music for Toddlers, Music for Families, and Suzuki Stars, as well as several community partnership programs.
Jane Tate, vocals, has a passion in working with the entire lifespan, from babies to elders, forming therapeutic relationships through music. Growing up in England, Jane has been lucky enough to perform as a youth all over the UK and other parts of Europe. Most notably, she was a piano soloist at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. She sang for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in The Royal Albert Hall, London. She was a vocalist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. In 2016, Jane began publishing pedagogical piano pieces for the “Composers Community” a division of Piano Pronto Publishing.