Fri 8/15 @ 8PM
Akron trumpet player Josh Rzepka has accomplished a lot of his 30 years. After graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory with a double major in jazz and classical music, he headed east to Boston University where he got his masters in 2010.
By then he’d already released two albums, one of his own jazz compositions and one of baroque trumpet music by composers like Handel, Purcell, and Vivaldi. He returned to northeast Ohio and didn’t sit idle. He released a second jazz album in 2011 and then gathered together some of the area’s best trumpet players — his teachers, mentors, and friends — for a project called Trumpet Genesis.
Currently spending some of his time in Chicago, he’s still active here as a player, teacher, and instigator. He fronts a quartet that features some stellar area players: pianist David Thomas, bassist Mike Forfia, and drummer Ron Godale. They’re be performing an intimate cabaret show at the Akron Civic Theatre that will feature classic jazz tunes, tracks from Rzepka’s albums, and some of his new compositions.
Live performance painter Todd Volkmer will join the quartet onstage.
Tickets are $20 or two for $35.
Photo by Robert Saferstein