Charlottesville, VA – American jazz musician Bill Cole will return to Charlottesville in November, bringing with him the Untempered Ensemble, a jazz septet he founded in 1992, featuring Warren Smith, Joseph Daly, Ras Moshe Burnett, Alex Blake, Lisette Santiago, and Althea SullyCole.

As part of its artist residency program, the Arts Administration curriculum at the University of Virginia will host Cole and the Untempered Ensemble in two concerts and a series of lectures and demonstrations for the University and Charlottesville communities. Concerts will take place Wednesday, November 16, 8 PM at Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church – Unitarian Universalist (717 Rugby Rd.) and Thursday, November 17, 8 PM at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Thursday night’s performance will culminate in a live concert recording.

Tickets for either concert will be available for $15 (or $5 for students), and must be purchased at the door.

A diverse and culturally historic collaboration, the Untempered Ensemble will feature instruments from Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States. They include: the didgeridoo, the Asian double reeds, the kora, the theremin, Chinese sonas, Korean hojok and piri, Indian nagaswarm and shena, and the Ghanaian flute.

The performances will include pieces composed by late pianist Don Pullen (1941-1995), a Roanoke native. Cole notes, “Pullen’s piano playing originally intrigued me, plus I hope to expose people to lesser-known master musicians.” Cole has transposed some Pullen pieces for the West African kora, Indian shenai, and the other instruments of the ensemble.

This residency is co-sponsored by the Charlottesville Jazz Society, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, UVA Arts Council, Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Aboriginal Art, UVA Arts, and the UVA McIntire Department of Music.

About the Artist: Bill Cole is an American jazz musician, composer, educator and author. An admired innovator, Cole successfully combines the sounds of untempered instruments with an American art form—jazz. With specialization in non-Western wind instruments, Cole is the leader of the Untempered Ensemble, a group he founded in 1992. He has performed with Sam Rivers, Billy Bang, Jayne Cortez, Julius Hemphill, Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, William Parker, Fred Ho, Gerald Veasley and others; at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Town Hall, Symphony Space and venues around the U.S. and in Europe; and has recorded for Boxholder Records. To learn more, visit BillCole.org.

About UVA Arts Administration Artist Residencies: The Arts Administration curriculum at UVA brings artists to Charlottesville for short-term residencies to serve as both an experiential learning laboratory for Arts Administration students as well as a valuable arts experience for the University and Charlottesville communities. Past residency artists have included Navajo weaver D.Y. Begay, modern dance master Douglass Dunn, poet Jayne Cortez, sculptor Melvin Edwards, and choreographer Bill T. Jones. To learn more about Arts Administration at UVA, visit http://www.virginia.edu/art/arts-admin/.