- Pulitzer Prize Finalist trumpeter and composer comes to Ventura College
- Three-day residency features conversations, workshops, and concerts
VENTURA — Pulitzer Prize finalist trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith will come to Ventura College for a three-day residency in February of 2025. The residency is designed to engage the student body and community at large through conversations, workshops, and concerts. The residency will include 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. The residency will conclude with a concert on February 14th, featuring Ventura College’s Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Band, and Chamber Singers.
“It is an honor to bring Wadada Leo Smith to Ventura College to meet and work with our students,” says Dr. Ashley Walters, VC Faculty and Symphony Orchestra conductor and a longtime collaborator with Smith. “Wadada Leo Smith has profoundly impacted how I think about sound, color, music, performance, and even life. I look forward to sharing this experience with our students and community.”
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: A Portrait
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, 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 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 conclude the concert with Smith’s Violin Concerto for LeRoy Jenkins (World Premiere), featuring VC student Carlos Ozuna as soloist.
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, ?ód?, 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.
Wadada Leo Smith residency – Schedule & Affiliated Events
COMMUNITY EVENTS / OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12 / 1:00- 2:15 PM
Open Rehearsal: VC Chamber Singers (Dir: Brent Wilson)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139 / 4700 Loma Vista Rd, Ventura, CA 93003
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12 / 2:30-3:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: String Quartet (Dir. Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139 / 4700 Loma Vista Rd, Ventura, CA 93003
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12 / 6:30-9:00 PM
Open Rehearsal + Q&A: VC Symphony Orchestra (Dir: Ashley Walters)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139 / 4700 Loma Vista Rd, Ventura, CA 93003
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 / 7:30-8:30 PM
Open Rehearsal: Jazz Band (Dir: Fundi Legohn)
Location: VC PAC, Room 139 / 4700 Loma Vista Rd, Ventura, CA 93003
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 / 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Concert: Wadada Leo Smith: A Portrait
Location: VC PAC, Yunker Auditorium / 4700 Loma Vista Rd, Ventura, CA 93003
Tickets: Pay What You Can pricing: www.venturacollege.edu/performing-arts
RELATED EVENTS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 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 (Free tickets available for VC students)
www.brightworknewmusic.com/tuesdays-at-monk-space
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 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)