On Tuesday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. the Longwood University Jazz Ensemble will present a free concert to benefit Virginia Legal Aid Society at Jarman Auditorium on the Longwood campus. Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend.  Doors will open at 7 p.m.  Jarman Auditorium is located at 505 High St. in Farmville. 

The concert will be presented with a theme of “Jazz4Justice.” The Longwood Jazz Ensemble has entered into a partnership with Virginia Legal Aid Society to raise awareness and help support fundraising for legal services for low income people and families in Central, Southside and Western Tidewater Virginia.  An opportunity to meet staff members of VLAS and donate to the society will be provided.

The two organizations hope to present annual concerts in the future, under the umbrella of an established networking program, “Jazz4Justice.”  This program began in 2000, when a Northern Virginia attorney, Ed Weiner, created a partnership with the jazz ensemble of George Mason University. Now Jazz4Justice provides a framework within which a number of university jazz bands across Virginia work closely with their local Legal Aid organizations. 

Dr. Charles Kinzer, director of the Longwood Jazz Ensemble, came up with the idea after seeing a similarly themed performance at University of Mary Washington. “I was struck by the crowd they had. It seemed that a lot of the legal community turned out for it,” Kinzer said. “I brought the idea back home and thought we should reach out to VLAS.”

The Longwood Jazz Ensemble, in its 26th year under Kinzer’s direction, will perform music from the libraries of Buddy Rich, Louis Prima, Miles Davis, and Gordon Goodwin, among others. Student soloists with the Jazz Ensemble include Joel Worford, a senior guitarist from Mildothian, Cory Anderson, a senior trumpeter from Culpeper, and Michael Velez, a senior trombonist from Yorktown.