Fredonia jazz professor Weiser tours with Glenn Miller Orchestra

Dr. Nick Weiser, tabbed a year ago to lead the Jazz Studies program in the School of Music, has a new side gig: touring member of the celebrated Glenn Miller Orchestra.

“It has been a phenomenal opportunity to perform with such incredible musicians,” Dr. Weiser said of the orchestra that he accompanied on a three-week Midwest tour in June. Weiser is a pianist in the 18-member ensemble.

“We played all the staples in the Glenn Miller repertoire – ‘In the Mood,’ ‘Tuxedo Junction,’ ‘Little Brown Jug,’” Weiser explained. Performance venues ranged from rural theatres to opera houses to large performing arts centers in major cities.

Weiser remembers listening to Swing music that the band director popularized in the 1930s and 1940s at his grandparents’ home while growing up, and never imagined that he’d someday have the opportunity to play with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Swing, or dance music, is an important part of the foundation of jazz that’s frequently overlooked, Weiser said. There is so much to learn for performers, composers and arrangers from Swing, he added.

The current Glenn Miller Orchestra was formed in 1956 in response to the widespread popularity of the film “The Glenn Miller Story,” which chronicled the life of the entertainer who disappeared at the height of his popularity in a flight over the English Channel during World War II. The ensemble that bears his name continues to maintain an ambitious touring schedule, playing an average 300 dates a year around the world.

Weiser, who also completed a brief tour with the orchestra earlier this year, is maintaining his teaching schedule at Fredonia as well as other professional commitments.

In fact, local jazz enthusiasts will have several opportunities to hear the Nick Weiser Trio in “Jazz at Domus Fare,” a four-event subscription series hosted by the Fredonia Jazz Society. The trio, which includes Weiser’s School of Music colleagues Kieran Hanlon, bass, and Alec Dube, percussion, along with occasional guest performers, will appear at the popular Fredonia restaurant on Sept. 13, Nov. 1, Feb. 21, 2019 and April 25, 2019.

More information about the Fredonia Jazz Society is available online.