MARQUETTE PARK COMPOSER'S WORKSHOP
Special mention in this director's section must be made to Marquette Park Composer's Workshop.
Marquette Park Composer’s Workshop was born out of a community cultural center on Chicago’s underserved South Side in 2020.
ln its humble basement home, the group made a commitment to daring performance and original composition.
In doing so, the ensemble managed to break through Chicago’s de facto segregation.
Members come from all walks of life in terms of neighborhood, culture, and identity.
They bring this lived experience to their work, which is then learned by the group and performed in free shows across Chicago.
MPCW regularly performs as part of the Chicago Park District's "Night Out In the Parks" series,
has been tapped to provide sound recordings for Carlos Flores' Anchor Editorial Project at Marquette Park,
and often makes radio performances (most recently on "ChiCityLive with Mike Rice" on Que4 Radio).
The ensemble's roster as of October 2024 is:
Ron Torres: Poet
Aarush Palli: flute/piccolo, Jacob Delgado: alto sax/flute/clarinet, Randy Trubitt: tenor sax/bass clarinet/Bb clarinet, Amelia Gutfeldt: baritone sax
Liliana Cruz: trumpet, Pete Isaac: trombone/bass trombone
Mike McCarthy: guitar, Reuben Stump: upright bass, Jayden Richardson & Jimmy Higgins: drums
Special mention in this director's section must be made to Marquette Park Composer's Workshop.
Marquette Park Composer’s Workshop was born out of a community cultural center on Chicago’s underserved South Side in 2020.
ln its humble basement home, the group made a commitment to daring performance and original composition.
In doing so, the ensemble managed to break through Chicago’s de facto segregation.
Members come from all walks of life in terms of neighborhood, culture, and identity.
They bring this lived experience to their work, which is then learned by the group and performed in free shows across Chicago.
MPCW regularly performs as part of the Chicago Park District's "Night Out In the Parks" series,
has been tapped to provide sound recordings for Carlos Flores' Anchor Editorial Project at Marquette Park,
and often makes radio performances (most recently on "ChiCityLive with Mike Rice" on Que4 Radio).
The ensemble's roster as of October 2024 is:
Ron Torres: Poet
Aarush Palli: flute/piccolo, Jacob Delgado: alto sax/flute/clarinet, Randy Trubitt: tenor sax/bass clarinet/Bb clarinet, Amelia Gutfeldt: baritone sax
Liliana Cruz: trumpet, Pete Isaac: trombone/bass trombone
Mike McCarthy: guitar, Reuben Stump: upright bass, Jayden Richardson & Jimmy Higgins: drums
|
|
|
|
Riggen counts the main components in his musical career as the ensembles he has founded, co-founded, or conducted.
These include conventional jazz quintets (Matt Riggen Quintet), chordless projects built specifically to play free jazz (OGC), and large-ensemble social protest groups (Liberation Music Collective, Marquette Park Composer's Workshop).
His ability to put the right personnel into the same room to make a specific project work is consistently evident
(for example, as with Ouija Board, nights of improvisers thrown into completely new groups curated by Riggen at Slate Arts).
Riggen's ability to draw energy out of and spur on his ensembles makes them stronger than the sum of their parts, and his intensity is rewarded with his ensembles responding in kind.
Such ability has also led to invitations to guest conduct other large ensembles, such as the Sean Imboden Large Ensemble of Indianapolis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of October 2017, Riggen is now the Director of Music at Marquette Park in Chicago.
He works in the historic neighborhood's Cultural Center to provide private and group-class musical instruction to its residents, organize recitals of his students,
and put on large-ensemble performances of repertoire from Marquette Park's musical library (compiled over the past 70 years).
His role lies somewhere between artist-in-residence, band director, repairman, facilitator, and adjunct lecturer.
As the Director, he currently teaches beginning-to-intermediate lessons on the clarinet family,
the saxophones, trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba, piano, guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, and drumset.
Two groups from Marquette Park regularly tour within Chicago: the aforementioned Marquette Park Composer's Workshop and the student-based Marquette Park Quartet/Sextet, which performs at cultural centers around the city and festivals like Fiesta Del Sol.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of August 2021, Riggen is now the Director of Jazz at Baker College Prep.
Employed by Jazz Empowers to head up this South Side charter school's band program, Riggen's role here is close to that of a traditional band director.
Responsible for teaching students musical excellence from their very first note, Riggen has been able to produce a competitive jazz program
honored internally within the Noble Charter School Network in less than 3 years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|