Youth Jazz Night featuring Anton Hunter’s Evolve Commission Premiere

This year’s Youth Jazz Night will be augmented by a 3-part ‘Improvised Suite for Lancaster’. The work has been specially created for the festival, with the help of players from the school bands of Lancaster, by Manchester guitarist Anton Hunter as part of our PRS Foundation funded Evolve Commission series.

Anton plays in the Beats & Pieces Big Band, Ripsaw Catfish and Sloth Racket, he leads the 11-piece ensemble Article XI and holds a PhD in ‘Composing for Large Groups of Improvising Musicians’.

This commissioned work started by inviting the young musicians of Lancaster to submit audio recordings of themselves improvising, huge thanks to those that got involved – we got some great recordings. These snippets of audio became the melodic material in the piece, ensuring that the music isn’t just written for the young bands, but a true collaboration.

Bands from LRGS, LGGS and Ripley St Thomas will all be performing a set and the finale will be all the bands playing the commissioned piece together as one gloriously huge ensemble.

LRGS Big Band

Ripley St Thomas Jazz Band

LGGS Jazz Band

Anton Hunter – Composer

Photo by Amii Priestley

Disabled parking spaces

If you’d like to attend and you’ll need a disable parking space, let us know once you booked your tickets: info@lancasterjazz.com