Loyola University Hosts Jazz Underground Concert, Weeklong Residency Featuring 9 Horses

Loyola University is pleased to present an intimate night of genre-bending Jazz with the acclaimed string trio 9 Horses, on Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m., in Nunemaker Auditorium.

The trio, led by mandolinist Joseph Brent, bassist Andrew Ryan and violinist Sara Caswell, is known for its exquisite blend of chamber music sophistication, jazz improvisation and cinematic warmth. The concert is part of Loyola's Jazz Underground series.

For the first time in several years, Loyola's String Area is hosting a resident artist - 9 Horses - for a week of activities as part of its inaugural Loyola Bayou Orchestra Festival.

As part of its residency, 9 Horses will perform a second, free concert with the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra and the Loyola Symphony Orchestra, on Nov. 15, at 7 p.m., in the Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall.

"We are doing something historically important, as well as moving with the times," said Kate Duncan, director of the School of Music and Theatre Professions and the Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Music Industry Studies at Loyola."Loyola has not played host to a week-long, artist-in-residence, let alone a festival featuring the string orchestra, in many decades."

Featuring Brent's original compositions and the incendiary, genre-hopping virtuosity of all three members, the trio represents their vision of a musical future with no barriers between "folk art" and "fine art," and as an ensemble are capable of communicating this idea through musical canvases both great and small.

Brent (formerly of Regina Spektor's band) plays acoustic and electric mandolin; Ryan (Kaia Kater) will be on the bass; and, Caswell (Esperanza Spalding), a 2018 Grammy nominee, plays violin and Hardanger d'amore.