Kirkwood Instrumental Jazz Ensembles Concert

Join us for the Kirkwood Community College spring Kirkwood Instrumental Jazz Ensembles Concert on our main campus in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Ballantyne Auditorium!

The Kirkwood Jazz Ensemble and CR Jazz Big Band will be performing, along with special guest Rachel Eckroth.

Get your tickets NOW at https://kirkwoodarts.simpletix.com/! $10 for adult, $5 for those under 18 and over 55, and free for Kirkwood students, faculty, and staff with a Kirkwood ID.

Pianist/keyboardist Rachel Eckroth’s ability to cross genres has taken her to all corners of the world as a leader and a sideman. Her most recent work as a sideman includes world tours with St. Vincent, Mike Gordon, Chris Botti, and Rufus Wainwright.

In 2018-19, she performed as a solo artist on Rufus Wainwright’s “All These Poses” Tour with her album, “When It Falls.” This acclaimed album has been described as, “A lush soundscape of incredibleness from start to finish… Her writing abilities are surpassed only by her amazing voice.” (Indie Voice Blog)

Her combination of jazz experimentation and pop feeling form the engine behind her own work as a leader/co-leader on nearly 20 albums, most recently “The Garden” on Rainy Days Records (2021). That same crossover talent is why she's been featured on voice and keyboards in the bands of artists with so many varying genres. Rachel’s most well-known project, “The Garden,” complete with a Grammy Nomination in 2021, features eight tracks written or co-written by Eckroth.

“Truth be told, when it comes to [articulating] musicianship, few can lay claim to such unvarnished yet riveting artistic evocations – sadness or joy, ugliness or beauty – as Miss Eckroth does, within the realms of the human, through understated expression and gentle and robust articulation. This is pianism at its most naked and at its very best.” —Jazzdagama.com

“Pianist, singer, and composter Rachel Eckroth is more than a musical chameleon. Her shapeshifting is so astonishingly dramatic that there is no upper limit to her creative identity.” —Simon Rentner, WGBO