Jazz music was flowing through Beckwith Recital Hall Thursday night on the UNC-Wilmington campus as faculty got together to showcase their musical talents. The event was aimed to be a fundraiser for scholarships for the Department of Music and every seat in the room was taken.

Six faculty members took part in the faculty showcase and a range of instruments were played. Michael D’Angelo, Jason Foureman, Mike Waddell, Jerald Shynett, Bob Russell, and Andy Whittington shared their jazz musical talents for the evening.

Ann Seymour, Events Coordinator and Admissions Assistant, sees Beckwith Recital Hall as a place fot students to come and grow. Built in 2006 and still fairly new to the UNCW campus, the music that takes place in that room is the most gratifying part for her. It is a place where students can come experiment with music to see what they like best and the faculty hopes anyone who is interested will take advantage of the space.

“This is home and what a great place it is to call home. When you’re sitting in here it’s like you’re sitting in the most wonderful living room,” said Seymour.

The room was packed Thursday night with a variety of individuals there to see the showcase. Taylor Thorne, a freshman at UNCW, was interested in the event due to her own passion of music.

“I heard this concert was happening from my music professor and I jumped at the opportunity to be here this evening,” said Thorne.

Both Michael D’Angelo and Jason Foureman are new to UNCW this semester and were both thrilled that the event was happening on campus. They have both been playing instruments for over twenty years and they wanted to do the event before the semester got crazy. With no shortage of passion for jazz, the musicians sat down to talk about the music genre they love.

D’Angelo has been coming to UNCW since he was fourteen to participate in the summer camps and now it has come full circle for him. Recently becoming a professor where he teaches drums and a couple jazz studies courses, he now gets to stay year round opposed to 1 week and that is okay with him. With a passion for jazz music, he believes there is more to jazz than what most people might think.

“My favorite part would be the communication between all the musicians. We treat it like a language where we all have our own vocabulary, we can express ourselves, and communicate with others,” said D’Angelo.

Foureman is also new to UNCW this semester and teaches bass instruction. So far his favorite part about becoming a part of the UNCW community is that he is treated well by everyone here. For him, music is about achieving a state of grace and being able to play well.

They were also accompanied by faculty member Bob Russell who teaches guitar courses here at UNCW. One thing all three professors put an emphasis on is that learning hwo to play music isn’t an easy thing, but for them it is like magic.

“It does involve a lot of work, but if it seems like work to you then you should probably be doing something else. We work on it really hard because we love it and it doesn’t feel like work to us,” said Russell.

With future events on the calendar such as the Jazz Festival taking place in April, UNCW will continue to have musical events with esteemed musicians for the Wilmington community and UNCW campus to experience.