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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Award-winning composer, arranger and jazz trombonist Nick Finzer will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, in É«É«À² Michigan University's Dalton Center Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Award-winning jazz trombonist Nick Finzer

Finzer

Born into a musical family with his mother Sherry Finzer being an international flutist, Finzer developed a fascination for the music of Duke Ellington and found himself, in high school, performing at the annual Essentially Ellington competition of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It was then that he decided to pursue a life in music himself. His budding talent was recognized by Wycliffe Gordon, who began a lifelong mentorship by writing four pieces for the young Finzer while he attended the Eastman School of Music. Finzer went on to get his masters from Juilliard's prestigious jazz program, where he was guided by trombone legend Steve Turre.

In 2011, he won the Eastern Trombone Workshop's National Jazz Trombone Competition and was a finalist in the 2010 International Trombone Association's Carl Fontana Jazz Trombone Competition. In January of 2013, Finzer released his recording debut as a bandleader and composer with "Exposition" for record label Outside In Music. Two tracks appearing on the album garnered him the prestigious American Society of Composers and Performers' Herb Alpert Award for young composers in 2013 and 2015.

Finzer will be joined by É«É«À² faculty Jeremy Siskind, Tom Knific, Andrew Rathbun and Scott Cowan as well as recent É«É«À² alumnus Steven Perry.

For more information about the concert, visit wmich.edu/music or call (269) 387-4667.

For more news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.