Concert To Celebrate The Legacy Of Dr. Fred Tillis

Source:  Umass Music and Dance

The UMass Department of Music & Dance will honor the late Dr. Frederick C. Tillis (1930-2020), composer, saxophonist, poet, administrator, and founder of the UMass Jazz and African American Music Studies Program on Sunday February 20, with a concert in the Tillis Performance Hall at UMass.  The concert begins at 4:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The event will also be streamed live over You Tube. There will be performances by Jazz Ensemble I, Vocal Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Clementine String Quartet, music faculty including Jeffrey Holmes & Salvatore Macchia, and several special guests including Avery Sharpe, Jake Epstein, Rob Faulkner, Amilcar Shabazz, royal hartigan, Dawning Holmes, Frank Newton & Nikki Stoia. The program will include a variety of jazz, classical, and sacred works composed by Dr. Tillis, including For The Victims and Survivors of September 11th, narrated by Professor Amilcar Shabazz from the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies.

Music Department chair Salvatore Macchia will lead a pre-concert discussion about Dr. Tillis’ life and legacy, to take place in the Bromery Center lobby beginning at 2:30pm. Panelists will include a number of the guest artists, including Epstein, Faulkner, hartigan, Shabazz, and Sharpe. Dr. Tillis’ daughter Pamela Tillis will also show an excerpt from a documentary film that she is creating about her father.

Important Safety Information

All attendees to Deptartment of Music & Dance events must:

• Wear a face mask regardless of vaccination status.
• Be prepared to show proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours. UMass students, faculty, and staff can show their UCard as proof of vaccination.

Please click here for a full policy statement detailing what forms of proof and ID will be necessary to attend this event.