Green Guest Artist Concerts

September 20, 2023 • 7:30 PM • Kresge Auditorium

“...neo-baroque piano riffings, plaintive strings, unexpected dynamic shifts and an unassailable sense of melody…” — Nathan Schram, New York Music Daily

Accentuating the synergy of classical music — and everything after it, this quintet of versatile chamber musicians was awarded the First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2020 SAVVY Chamber Competition — in addition to DePauw’s 21CM POP Organization of 2018. The group’s multifaceted “Dreamland” program, featuring creative arrangements of classics from Duke Ellington to Rimsky-Korsakov to Radiohead, alongside the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, Gertrude Stein and Maya Angelou, celebrates the rich diversity of contemporary culture.

Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator Sean Jones. Comfortable in any musical setting no matter the role or genre, from Lincoln Center to the Green Center, Jones’s extraordinary musicianship allows him to move seamlessly from setting to setting, be it intimate, orchestral or big band — as our Green Guest Artist and as headliner for DePauw School of Music’s 2023 JazzFest.

November 17, 2023 • 7:30 PM • Kresge Auditorium

“…thrilling, heady highs and warm, full-bodied figures in nearly equal doses” — Mack Avenue, Downbeat

February 21, 2024 • 7:30 PM • Thompson Recital Hall

“The art was all in the telling.” — Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Raised in the Watts district of Los Angeles but deeply influenced by the music and culture of his Louisiana family heritage, this multi-instrumentalist storyteller plays traditional American music of all kinds. Now based in New York City where he is part of a lively traditional music community, Paxton travels the country sharing his immense musical gifts and extensive knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth century country blues, ragtime, and old-time string band music.