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Skip Wilkins, Lehigh Valley jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, will perform a program of solo jazz improvisations at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, September 16, at Lafayette College’s Williams Center for the Arts. The event, part of Lafayette’s Family Weekend 2000, is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.
Wilkins is a visiting instructor of music at Lafayette, teaching music theory, music fundamentals, and jazz piano.
“I’m teaching majors in biology, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, art, and so on,” Wilkins says. “It’s exciting to take these kinds of students through a course that could prepare them for achieving a high level of music. They may not plan on making a living from music, but they have a ‘life of the mind’ commitment and are looking for connections with the musical arts. I find Lafayette students to be very engaging that way.”
The concert will be recorded, Wilkens says. “Depending on how it turns out, it has the potential to become my next release. I’ve never done a live recording for a CD.”
Wilkins plays solo and in ensembles extensively throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. Most recently, he was featured keyboard artist in the Moravian College “Jazz Getaway” concert with Stanley Turrentine. He also has performed with David Liebman, Bobby Watson, Plas Johnson, Conte Candoli, and Mark Murphy, among many others. His new recording, Petty Theft, which he recorded for the Cathexis label with long-time collaborator Jo Allen and the rest of the Wilkins and Allen Quartet, is due for its national release this month. The album also features internationally acclaimed tenor and soprano saxophone player David Liebman. Allen, a flute player, teamed up with Wilkins as a duo to record Too Much Fun! for national release in 1996.
In the mid-1980s, Wilkins taught jazz improvisation and music theory at the University of Northern Colorado. He performed all over the western part of the country during that period, codifying his own musical language through the process of directing student musicians.