29th Annual Jazz Festival

The West Chester University Wells School of Music has announced programming and performances for the festival, running March 20-23. All events are staged in the Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre, Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center, located 817 South High Street. Events Wednesday through Friday are free and open to the public.

“Our annual Jazz Festival, now in its 29th year, invites members of the community onto our campus to enjoy some of the finest jazz artists from our region and beyond, programmed in our top-notch facilities, for free,” said Marc Jacoby, Director of Jazz Studies at WCU and the curator for this year’s festival. “We want the community to take full advantage of these offerings, and to share in our excitement for this fantastic programming.”

Events include:

• Minas featuring Orlando Haddad and Patricia King
• WCU Faculty Jazz Group
• Tony Micelli (vibraphone) and Diane Monroe (violin)
• Adam Larson Quartet
• Master Class with Xiomara Laugart and Axel Tosca Laugart
• Xiomara Laugart and Axel Tosca Laugart (with the WCU Criterions, a string sextet, and arrangements by WCU’s own Jonathan Ragonese)
• High School Jazz Ensemble Showcase

Click here for more details.

Military Friendly Schools

WCU has once again earned the designation from VIQTORY (previously Victory Media), which has been evaluating schools for this ranking for 10 years.

This year, WCU also achieved bronze status, recognizing the university’s coordinated system of service and support for veterans, active military, and those whose support them. The Greg and Sandra Weisenstein Veterans Center is the hub of activities and services for WCU’s student-veterans.

The 766 institutions that earned the 2019-2020 Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey completed by each school. They were assessed on their ability to meet benchmarks for veteran enrollment, including retention, graduation, job placement, loan default, and transfer rates.

36th Annual Presidential Scholarship Community Gala

On Saturday, March 30, WCU will host the gala, “Barbados: Charting the Course for Student Success,” at Longwood Gardens, a first-time venue for the black-tie event. All proceeds will benefit the Presidential Scholarship Fund. Click here for tickets.

Funded entirely by private donations, the Presidential Scholarship is a renewable, four-year award. This year’s recipients are:

• first-year student Peter Matuszak from Cincinnati, an international business major and member of both the Honors Student Association and the varsity golf team
• first-year student Hannah Stevens from Hatfield, a music therapy major and member of WCU’s Concert Band and Colleges Against Cancer, the collegiate chapter of the American Cancer Society
• first-year student Allison Weissman from Hackettstown, N.J., an English secondary education major and member of WCU’s Creative Writing Club

While Barbados may be miles away from WCU’s campus, the eastern Caribbean island is particularly special to WCU President Christopher Fiorentino, whose mother grew up in the area. President Fiorentino said that one can always find Bajan pepper sauce in his home, as well as a cherished painting that his father created of his mother’s house in Barbados.

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