MOUNT VERNON — The big band sound returns to Knox County’s Memorial Theater on Saturday as Mount Vernon’s own Vaughn Wiester brings his Famous Jazz Orchestra home for his second annual concert to benefit a Community Foundation music scholarship fund established in his honor. Admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is free to the public on a first-come basis until the auditorium’s capacity is reached.
Joining Wiester and his 21-piece ensemble will be featured vocalist Barbara Knight, who has consistently dazzled local audiences during Famous Jazz Orchestra performances for the Community Concerts Association of Knox County and the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County, co-sponsors of this benefit concert.
The Vaughn Wiester Music Scholarship will be awarded for the second time this spring to an aspiring instrumentalist or vocalist who is a graduating high school senior residing in Knox County. Funds for the scholarship are being raised through the solicitation of individual patrons and corporate sponsors, and through voluntary contributions in any amount that will be invited from audience members. Last year’s winner, Caitlin Hedge, now a first-year student at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music, will be introduced on stage at this year’s concert and will demonstrate her musical artistry.
Wiester returns to Mount Vernon on the heels of presenting a guest lecture to a Lincoln Center audience on famed pianist, composer and bandmaster Stan Kenton.
Published on March 20, 2012