Menu
Snyder, Caswell present ‘Pop with Touches of Jazz’ Wednesday
Steven Snyder, head of Jazz Studies at DePauw University, will be joined this week by vocalist Rachel Caswell for a Greencastle Summer Music Festival performance at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Gobin Church.
Backed up by Sophie Faught (saxophone), Jesse Whitman (bass) and Brian Yarde (drums), Snyder and Caswell will present “Pop with Touches of Jazz,” including arrangements of hits by Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Leslie Bricusse and The Bee Gees. Snyder, a versatile keyboardist, will be playing Hammond organ, piano, electronic keyboard and synths.
The eighth concert in the Greencastle Summer Music Festival’s 20th season, the program is offered to the community without admission charge.
The GSMF is self-funded through donations at concerts, gifts from an array of individual donors, an endowment (created by donations from the family of GSMF audience members past and present, as well as support from local businesses including the Inn at DePauw, The Doc’s Inn, First National Bank, North Salem State Bank, Old National Bank and Tri-County Bank and Trust.
“Our motto is ‘friends making music for friends’ and our mission is creating community through shared arts experiences,” GSMF founder Eric Edberg says. “It is wonderful to see the differing arrays of musical friends Steve brings us each summer, and to have the opportunity to experience their amazing music making. I’m particularly thrilled to have the amazing singer Rachel Caswell making her GSMF debut.”
Snyder has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as well as appearing on 20 recordings with artists such as Randy Brecker, Dave Stryker, Jonathan Kreisberg, Brannen Temple, Robben Ford and the University of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band.
Professor of jazz keyboard/music theory at DePauw, Snyder is a native Pennsylvanian, who holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas and a DMA in Piano Performance (Jazz Emphasis) from the University of Texas-Austin. Snyder was selected as one of 66 pianists from all over the world to compete in the Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition, held in Paris in October 2002.
Jazz vocalist Caswell is known for her improvisational prowess, her pinpoint accuracy of pitch and rhythm and her depth of delivery and interpretation of popular song. Her most recent recording, “We’re All in the Dance” (2018), features some of New York’s top performers including Dave Stryker, Fabian Almazan, Linda May Han Oh, Johnathan Blake and Sara Caswell.
Rachel has performed at colleges, festivals and a variety of venues nationwide. In addition to her solo work, she and her sister Sara co-lead the Caswell Sisters Quintet and have made such notable appearances as a weeklong After-Hours engagement at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City and an enthusiastically received set on the opening night concert of the 2010 Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference in St. Louis.
The festival continues next week with two concerts by internationally-acclaimed Japanese pianist Taka Kigawa, a GSMF favorite. On Wednesday, July 24, he’ll perform Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata and “Preludes” by Chopin. On Thursday, July 25, he will offer a “bonus concert,” a 45-minute performance of the complete etudes of György Ligeti, which are considered to be one of the major creative accomplishments of the late 20th century.