The UNL Jazz Orchestra and Big Band will open the new season with a 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 concert in Kimball Recital Hall. The performance will feature original works and arrangements by UNL students and faculty, works from historically important big bands, and selections from spring 2016 guest composer George Stone.

The UNL Jazz Orchestra, directed by Paul Haar, is the university’s showcase jazz organization and one of the Glenn Korff School of Music’s most visible performing groups. UNL Big Band, directed by Patrick Brown, is a vital component of the UNL jazz curriculum.

The concert will also feature new band fronts (music stands) purchased through a gift from John and Laurie Tavlin.

“John (Tavlin) and I were talking in a lesson about me taking back over the UNL (Jazz Orchestra) and he and I agreed that it would be great if we could add something visual to an already strong musical presentation,” said Haar, director of the UNL jazz studies program. “After all, going to a concert isn’t just about what you hear…although that is always our major focus. It is about a total presentation that shows the audience that there is something special.”

John Tavlin said the gift was a way to help promote UNL’s jazz studies program.

“I want the elite positioning of the Jazz Orchestra and Big Band to be restored,” John Tavli said. “An important factor in that restoration is presenting the Jazz Orchestra and Big Band in as professional a format as possible so that the concerts are visual as well as aural productions. All professional big bands play behind fronts. That’s a standard and expected mark of professionalism. I felt that it was important for the Jazz Orchestra and Big Band to appear on stage in the same visual format as a professional big band.”

Tickets, available at the door, are $5 general admission and $3 for students (with valid identification) and senior citizens.