About 40 students and staff were treated to an intimate concert in the Davis Concert Hall Sunday, Jan. 29. The concert was open to the public and spotlighted Glenn White, the new Instructor of woodwinds and director of jazz ensembles in the UAF Music Department. The concert was also a premier of several musical pieces that White has written. Accompanying White were Tom Lindsay on the guitar, John Keech on the bass, and Jim Vogt on the drums.

"For me this concert was really a chance to play just a bunch of really hard songs with other people." White said. "I've lived in Boston and New York, and in those places there's always this pressure to write your own music and play your own stuff. This concert is really a chance for me to learn and perform other's songs." Among the two songs in the program that White himself wrote, there was a song by Thelonious Monk, one by Joe Henderson, and a song "Autumn Leaves" that White had arranged.

White is a newcomer to UAF, having been hired to teach on Sept. 1. "It was pretty crazy!" White said, "I got my master's in May and then applied for the job in August by a phone interview. Then I went to Montreal for a little while, just to take a break and take my mind off the interview. I had just crossed the border back into the States when I got a call on my cell phone and it was the school, so here I am."

As both the new instructor of woodwinds and the director of jazz ensembles, White is the director of the annual jazz festival, plus directing several ensembles and teaching full time. "My schedule is just so full," White said. "Teaching kids, giving private lessons, as a teacher you're always playing for the students, this concert is also just a chance for me to take a step back and just do something as a performer."

White has been playing the saxophone for 24 years now, and has been playing piano since college. "Back in the 80s I wanted to be in the hair bands," White said. "Poison, Twisted Sister, I was really drawn to that." White started writing music soon after starting college. "I took a composition class," White said, "and with that, writing music is your assignment. Every week you turn in some music you wrote. And for me, it was making the choice to really work on it and make something good that I would actually play, instead of just putting some notes on a page."

The concert itself was fantastic. White's two tunes that he wrote, "Evil Otto Rides Again" and "Jerry's Take Out", are snapping, fast paced tunes. The music as a whole is smooth and easy, with many solos that display all the players' talents to the fullest. "I was very pleasantly surprised with the musical skill I've found here in Fairbanks," White said. "When I first got here I couldn't wait to meet people and just jam and check out the local scene. The thing that's most surprised me about the scene is just how friendly and open everyone is. In Boston you would call, and even if you had everything in order, your reviews, your CDs, they would still say, ‘Oh, we'll pencil you in four months from now.' Here, everyone is just so enthusiastic and when you ask them to get together and play all they say is, ‘Yeah! When?'"