Mon Apr 21
The Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble, directed by Dr. Darden Purcell, is the DownBeat award-winning Jazz vocal group of George Mason University. This group has performed at the Kansas City Jazz Summit, ACCENT Vocal Festival, Blues Alley and Jazz4Justice concerts. They have been featured with the American Festival Pops Orchestra (cond. Anthony Maiello), Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, (dir. Jim Carroll), and the Capitol Bones All-Brass Big Band (dir. Matt Niess). They also had the honor of performing as back-up vocalists for Indie pop star, Ben Folds with the National Symphony Orchestra (Wolf Trap), Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Virginia Beach Symphony.
Spring 2023, the MJVE was awarded a DownBeat Student Music Award for "Outstanding Performance - Large Vocal Jazz Ensemble." Studio vocalists have also won DownBeat Student music awards for “Outstanding Performance, Vocal Jazz Soloist” (2022) and “Outstanding Performance, Scat Soloist.” (2024)
Conference performances include the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference (Dallas, TX, 2018 and New Orleans, LA, 2024), Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) conference (Richmond, VA, 2023), and the American Choral Directors Association Regional Conference (Raleigh, NC, 2022). March 2025, the Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble will travel to Dallas, Texas to perform at the American Choral Directors Association, National Conference. The Mason Jazz Vocal Ensemble has shared the stage with vocal super groups, ACCENT, The New York Voices, and The Manhattan Transfer.