MUSIC: Saturday Night
Tickets: $20/$25 Saturday Advanced/Doors | $35 Music Fest Pass
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Matt Cooper, a prizewinner in the Thelonious Monk International and Great American Jazz Piano competitions (1988), has toured with the Woody Herman big band and performed with Eddie Harris, Clark Terry, the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and many others. He has also performed or recorded with Northwest legends like Nancy King, Jim Pepper, Rob Scheps, David Friesen, Dmitri Matheny, John Stowell, Glen Moore, and Dan Balmer. He is co-leader or sideman on numerous CDs, including “Reflection in Two Shades” by Lee McKinney (and featuring woodwind artist Greg Abate) which will be released on Summit Records in March 2024.
Cooper is also a classical pianist and has performed recitals, chamber concerts, and concertos across the U.S. and in the Russian Far East. Author of a 2013 book on Duke Ellington’s piano styles, he has presented and performed on Ellington’s piano music at conferences in Amsterdam; Woking, England; and at Reed College. He is a music Professor Emeritus at Eastern Oregon University, where he taught for 28 years.
Greg Johnson teaches chromatic and jazz theory, improvisation, arranging, and woodwind performance at Eastern Oregon University. He is an active saxophonist in Northeast Oregon, playing jazz, rock, blues and classical music in a variety of contexts. While a student at the University of North Texas, he studied with James Riggs and was a member of the Two O’ Clock Lab Band and the Dallas Jazz Orchestra. Johnson was the winner of the 1987 Region IV North American Saxophone Alliance Young Artist Competition and has performed with Pete Christlieb, Bobby Shew, Gary Foster, Richie Cole, Dmitri Matheny, and Jeff Coffin. He grew up in Portland, Oregon and has lived in NE Oregon for the last 25 years.