Artist Residency: Wadada Leo Smith
Wednesday, Feb 12 – Friday, Feb 14
Concert: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
Friday, Feb 14, 3:00 PM
Pulitzer Prize finalist trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith comes to Ventura College for a three-day residency, culminating with a concert featuring VC's music students and ensembles.
The residency, designed to engage the student body and community at large through conversations, workshops, and concerts, includes both public events and special sessions for VC students and faculty, and is held in conjunction with events presented by LA’s Tuesdays @ Monk Space and the Ojai Music Festival.
Smith’s compositions use a remarkable musical notation of his own creation that incorporates a variety of mediums including pens, paints, metallics, and found objects. His genre-spanning work has earned him many accolades and his recent teaching positions include visiting lecturer at Harvard University. Smith lived in Ventura for 13 years and has deep ties to the city. The inspiration for some of his work comes from his daily walks on Ventura’s beaches.
CONCERT INFORMATION
Wadada Leo Smith’s three-day Ventura College residency will conclude with a concert at 3:00 PM on Friday, February 14, 2025 at Ventura College’s Yunker Auditorium in the VC Performing Arts Center. The program will showcase the composers incredible versatility, and will feature Ventura College’s talented student musicians. The program will start with Smith’s String Quartet No. 3, Black Church: A First World Gathering of the Spirit, featuring Carlos Ozuna and Liah Kraft (violin), Alex Fager (viola), and Ashley Walters (cello). The Ventura College Chamber Singers (Brent Wilson, director) will perform excerpts from Rosa Parks – Oratorio of Seven Songs and the VC Jazz Band (Fundi Legohn, director) will perform Mrs. Till and Emmett Till: Again: Can You See the Light. The VC Symphony Orchestra (Ashley Walters, conductor) will perform Smith’s Violin Concerto for LeRoy Jenkins (World Premiere), featuring VC student Carlos Ozuna as soloist. Students from various disciplines across the VC Campus will join the music department to perform Winter, one of Smith's ankhrasmation scores.
SCHEDULE & AFFILIATED EVENTS
COMMUNITY EVENTS / OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Wednesday, Feb-12 / 1:00- 2:15 PM
Open Rehearsal: VC Chamber Singers (Dir: Brent Wilson)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Wednesday, Feb-12 / 2:30-3:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: String Quartet (Dir. Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Wednesday, Feb-12 / 6:30-9:00 PM
Open Rehearsal + Q&A: VC Symphony Orchestra (Dir: Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Thursday, Feb-13 / 7:30-8:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: Jazz Band (Dir: Fundi Legohn)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
Friday, Feb-14 / 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Concert: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
Location: VC PAC, Yunker Auditorium
Tickets: Pay What You Can, www.venturacollege.edu/performing-arts
CAMPUS EVENTS – OPEN TO VC STUDENTS, FACULTY & STAFF
Wednesday, Feb-12 / 10:00-11:15 AM
Opening Session: ‘Exploring Ankhrasmation’
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
This session explores Smith’s scores, and is an opportunity for spoken word artists, poets, fine artists, actors, dancers, or musicians to workshop Smith’s work as a pre-cursor to the Feb-14 concert.
Thursday, Feb-13 / 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Flex Day Faculty Event: Intro to Wadada Leo Smith
Location: VC PAC, Guthrie Hall
This Flex-day event is only open to Faculty. It will include a performance of 'String Quartet No. 3, Black Church: A First World Gathering of the Spirit.'
Thursday, Feb-13 / 1:45-3:00 PM
Session 2: A Discussion on Creativity and Inspiration
+ Q&A led by Vicki Ray
Location: VC PAC, Room 139
This Session includes a Q&A between Smith and pianist and scholar Vicki Ray.
Friday, Feb-14 / 11:30 - 2:00 PM
Dress Rehearsal: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
This rehearsal is for all the VC students, staff, and faculty who will perform in the concert.
RELATED EVENTS
Tuesday, Feb-11 / 8:00 PM
Tuesdays @ Monk Space presents Wadada Leo Smith and RedKoral
String Quartet No. 17
Location: Monk Space – Los Angeles / 4414 W. 2nd Street. Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tickets: $15-$25 (Limited free tickets available for VC students)
www.brightworknewmusic.com/tuesdays-at-monk-space
Saturday, Feb-15 / 7:30 PM
Ojai Music Festival presents Wadada Leo Smith and RedKoral
String Quartet No. 19 (World Premiere)
Location: The Red Canteen at Matilija / 703 El Paseo Road, Ojai, CA
Tickets: $25 suggested (Limited free tickets available for VC students)
www.ojaifestival.org/creative-lab-02-15-25
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Wadada Leo Smith (b. 1941) is a trumpet player and composer, originally from Leland, Mississippi. Smith’s early musical education was from his stepfather, Alex “Little Bill” Wallace, and through the U.S. Military band. He furthered his education at Sherwood School of Music and Wesleyan University where he studied Indonesian music performance, African and South Indian flute music, Anthropological study of American Indigenous music, and Japanese koto music.
Smith has held teaching positions at the University of New Haven, Bard College, the California Institute of the Arts, and most recently as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University.
Smith’s awards and accolades are numerous and include the awards of Artist, Trumpeter, and Album (America’s National Parks) of the year in DownBeat Magazine’s 65th Annual Critics Poll, Artist of the Year in the Jazz Times’ Critics Poll of 2016, and Musician of the Year in 2017 by the Jazz Journalists Association. In addition, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his work Ten Freedom Summers, was a Guggenheim fellow in 2009, received the 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Vision Festival in 2022, and was inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2023.
Over his lifetime, Smith has created own symbolic language score called Ankhrasmation. This guides his work as a composer, creator, performer, and educator. These scores are developed with a variety of mediums including pens, paints, metallics, and found objects. These pieces have been on exhibit in The Museum of Rhythm, Museum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland; The Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA; and the Renaissance Society, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Performing Arts Center
Helen Yunker Auditorium
4700 Loma Vista Rd. Ventura CA 93003
