This month’s free Community Concert in our Sanctuary features Matt Shevitz on saxophone. Since first arriving in Chicago almost twenty years ago, Matt has been an in-demand musician in the jazz, blues and popular music scenes. Throughout his music career he has performed alongside such internationally renowned jazz musicians as Dick Hyman, Ignacio Berroa, Howard Levy, Frank Capp, Randy Sandke, Ken Peplowski, Byron Stripling and Frank Wess along with blues/roots rock guitarist Eric Lindell and Ropeadope Records artists Spare Parts. With these artists and others, Matt has performed at such festivals and clubs as the Jazz in the Park Festival (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), the Waterfront Blues Festival (in Portland, Oregon), the Chicago Blues Festival, Lollapalooza, the Jazz Showcase, the House of Blues in Chicago and as a featured artist for Oregon Festival of American Music (in Eugene, Oregon) and the Modlin Center for the Performing Arts (in Richmond, Virginia).
In addition to performing, Matt has been a regular contributor to DownBeat Magazine since 2009. He has published articles analyzing transcriptions of great jazz solos as well as jazz theory and effective practice habits. His articles have garnered the attention of musicians worldwide.
Matt is currently a professor and the Director of Jazz Ensembles at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Jazz Performance degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, for which he did extensive research on the great jazz saxophonist Harold “Tina” Brooks. His other degrees consist of a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science in Music from the University of Oregon.