The WSU School of Music will put on a Virtual Celebration of Jazz, which will be livestreamed at 7:30 p.m. today on WSU Pullman Music’s YouTube channel. 

The concert will feature students, faculty and guest artists, and a new piece will be premiered at the event, jazz studies coordinator Greg Yasinitsky said. 

WSU’s jazz band acquires some of the greatest musicians and faculty in the country, he said. 

Special guest Mike Galisatus, director of the Stanford University Jazz Band and former director of bands at the College of San Mateo, will be performing in the event, Yasinitsky said. 

During the semester, Galisatus gave special workshops to students on how to teach and play jazz, he said. 

Alison Poteracke, WSU guest alumni composer, said she is excited students are still able to get together as a community and celebrate jazz even during the pandemic. 

The School of Music was able to come up with a successful and pandemic-safe way to provide music to the community, Yasinitsky said. 

Before the pandemic, almost all the concerts were held in the Kimbrough Concert Hall or in Bryan Hall, he said. 

The jazz band is made up of 17 people, who normally rehearse in the same room, he said. However, that has been impossible because of the pandemic.

The band started doing virtual videos last spring when the university went online, he said. 

All of the students in the band play their part individually, Yasinitsky said. They record themselves and send in their audio tracks, which get assembled into a recording. 

Being able to virtually and individually record videos is a skill that will really help students in their career, he said. 

“I am excited about [the event] because I am very proud of the students,” he said. “I’m proud of what we have at WSU, we have a great school of music with [an] incredible faculty.”