Described as one of the most “fresh,” “hip,” and “brilliant” composers and musicians of his time, the Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet will perform a free concert tonight at 9 p.m. in the Wyoming Union Ballroom. 

It will be the concluding event for the University of Wyoming’s three-day creativity conference.

The concert, which is sponsored by Teaching Creativity, Friday Night Fever and the Student Activities Council, will showcase music from Alegria’s newest chart-topping CD, “Nuevo Mundo.” 

“Gabriel is definitely one of the most creative and inventive artists out there,” Mike Lange, program adviser of the Wyoming Union, said. “Not only is he an amazing musician, but he’s a great educator as well.”`

While world-renowned trumpeter and composer Alegria will lead the sextet, he will be accompanied by saxophonist Laurandrea LeguÍa, acoustic guitarist Yuri Juárez, bassist Ramón De Bruyn, drummer Hugo Alcázar and master percussionist Freddy Lobatón. 

Alegria, who is currently the associate director of jazz studies at New York University, earned a doctorate in jazz studies from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree from the City University of New York and a bachelor’s degree from Kenyon College. 

During the course of a musical career that has spanned the globe, Alegria’s sextet has received rave reviews from a number of different magazines and artists. 

“An inspiring mixture of Jazz and Afro-Peruvian music,” “The Latin Jazz Corner” said. “As more people hear Alegria’s honest blend of styles, they will definitely be looking for its inclusion into their future musical landscape.”

Ingrid Jensen, the nationally acclaimed jazz trumpeter who performed with the Wyoming Jazz Ensemble during last week’s Rocky Mountain Festival of Winds, added, “My life has been enriched by Gabriel’s vision and the great music he has introduced me to.”

On top of tonight’s concert, Lange also said Alegria will host a free workshop this afternoon at 3:30 in the Wyoming Union Ballroom. At the workshop, which is open to students and the public, he said Alegria will discuss the role creativity plays in higher education. 

Overall, Lange said he encourages anyone and everyone to attend not only Alegria’s afternoon workshop, but also his concert this evening. 

“They are going to be off-the-charts awesome. There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be new. It’s going to be innovative. It’s definitely going to be everything you want from a concert.”

Edward de Bono, a famous Maltese author and inventor once said: “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would forever be repeating the same patterns.”

In wake of the University of Wyoming’s three-day creativity conference, Mark Sheridan-Rabideau, UW assistant professor of music, has echoed de Bono’s sentiments for creativity, organizing a concert titled: “New Works, New Worlds.”

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center concert hall and features world-renowned trombonist John Kenny, as well as the Continental Trombone Quartet, the UW Faculty String Quartet and UW music professor Rod Garnett, among others.

Tickets cost is $5 for students and senior citizens and $7 for the general public.  

In addition to musical performances by Kenny and UW faculty members, Sheridan-Rabideau said pieces written by Anne Guzzo, UW assistant professor of music, and Harvey Hix, UW English professor, will be showcased. 

By participating in this conference, Kenny said he feels he can bring a lot to the table regarding creativity, beginning with his ability to relay the idea of communication through the language of music. 

“As a musician, you can sit down with people of totally different language groups and play the notes on a page because it’s a shared language for anyone who reads western musical notation,” he said. 

For tonight’s concert, Kenny said he and Garnett, a flutist, will perform “The Dark Night of the Soul,” a piece he composed in response to a book titled “Writing at the End of the World” by Richard E. Miller. 

He described the piece as the highest level of creativity, adding that it forces the duo to “interpret a piece of music which has a considerable amount of the logical information removed from it.” 

“There are rhythms and shapes, but nothing else,” Kenny said. “Therefore, we have to play all of these rhythmic structures correctly and in time, yet we still have to find a way to instinctively make melodic and harmonic sense.”

He added, “The piece will be a very interesting experiment in the communicative language of music.”

As a treat to the audience, Kenny said he will also be playing a piece on the carnyx, a Celtic boar-headed horn. In 1993, he became the first person in modern times to play the unique instrument. 

Between the Festival of Winds last week in which he performed and the creativity conference this week, Kenny said he has really enjoyed his time in Laramie, aside from the fact of not being accustomed to playing his instruments at such a high elevation. 

“In Scotland, we’d have to go to the top of the Alps to be this high, and we’re certainly not going to play a trombone recital up there,” he said. 

Kenny is an acclaimed actor, composer and creative artist. On top of being one of the world’s leading trombonists, Kenny teaches in Scotland, as well as at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. 

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