Jazz Festival Returning to NIC

Look out for the upcoming annual JazzNIC Festival at North Idaho College on February 7th and 8th on the college’s main campus. This educational music festival will feature a concert at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, February 7.  This event is free and available to the public.

Boswell Hall Schuler Performing Arts Center will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, This educational festival features hourly clinics for vocal and instrumental jazz groups. Students can attend these clinics to receive feedback on how to improve their performance.

NIC’s Cardinal Voices is led by Max Mendez, NIC’s Director of Choirs and Professor of Music. The choir will be performing a mix of songs composed by various songwriters including “Smooth Operator” and “How Deep is Your Love.” 

Cardinal Voices is a new music ensemble at North Idaho College. The ensemble focuses on performing studio-quality popular music. They emphasize an atmosphere of small group dynamics, ensemble and solo performances, and songwriting and arranging.

“I’m excited for the audience to hear this semester’s line-up of students,” Mendez said. “We are excited to perform the music of Adele, Al Green, and Van Morrison. Our audience will be ‘Rolling in the Deep’ sounds of the group and doing a groovy ‘Mood Dance’ by the end of the set.”

Mendez plays an active part in the Inland Northwest music community. He divides his time between conducting, teaching, and performing and currently conducts the NIC Cardinal Chorale, Chamber Singers, as well as Cardinal Voices.

The NIC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Hannaford, will perform with guest clinicians, Jenny Kellogg and James Schmehl.