The Wayfarer's Path - (Level IV) Commissioned for string orchestra by Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia, assisted by a grant from The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, during a year-long composer-in-residence term. Scored for violins, violas, cellos, basses, plus an optional substitute violin for viola part. The piece is based on repeated themes and rhythms that make the music both very lyrical and playable. There are no swing eighth-notes. Everyone gets melodic material (though not necessarily the melody itself) at various points of the work. While this piece includes no improvised solos, it is thoroughly influenced by jazz melody, harmony, and phrasing. This music is inspired by many influences, especially by various African dances that feel mixed-metered to the Western world. The title comes from the history of exploration and discovery, whether geographical, innovative, or other. Such “wayfarers” journey through many challenges towards the discoveries that add to our heritage forever. Jazz String Ensemble

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ANTONIO J. GARCIA has accepted the post of Director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond effective, August 2001. A trombonist, bass trombonist or pianist with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Mel Torme, Doc Severinsen, Louis Bellson and Phil Collins as well as a composer/arranger and author, Garica serves as Editor of the International Association of Jazz Educators' Jazz Educators' Journal and is past-president of IAJE-Illinois. He is co-editor and contributing author of Teaching Jazz: A course of Study (published by MENC) and a member of the board of The Midwest Clinic. After teaching the summer academic quarter at Northwestern University, Mr. Garcia will leave his current post of Associate Professor of Music at NU. At Northwestern University he directed the combo program, taught jazz and integrated arts, and for four years directed the vocal jazz ensemble. Prior to NU he served as the Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University. He was selected by students and faculty at NIU as the receipient of a 1992 "Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching" Award and nominated as its candidate for the 1992 CASE "U.S. Professor of the Year (one of 434 nationwide).