Two popular pillars of the School of Music faculty, with an
astonishing 69 years of combined service at Illinois State University, will
make their farewell appearances at the Faculty Jazz Ensemble concert
Tuesday, March 6, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.
Saxophonist James Boitos, who joined the Music faculty in 1971, and trombonist-pianist Charles Stokes, who came on board three years later, will retire at the end of this academic year.
Admission to the concert is $6 for the general public, $5 for faculty-staff and $4 for students and senior citizens.
The Faculty Jazz Ensemble, which also features Glenn Wilson on baritone saxophone, William Koehler on bass and Tom Marko on drums, will perform works by a variety of composers including ensemble members Marko and Koehler, along with Ornette Coleman, Tom Harrell, Keith Jarrett, Bob Belden, Gordon Jenkins, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton.
From 1971 to 2001, Boitos was the director of jazz ensembles, with his jazz bands winning individual and group performance awards at college jazz festivals throughout the country. As a solo performer, Boitos has played throughout the U.S. and in England and Germany, and has freelanced with such performers as Pearl Bailey, Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams, Cab Calloway, Nancy Wilson and many others.
Stokes has taught trombone at ISU and currently is coordinator of the Music Theory/History/Theory area of the School of Music and director of the ISU Electronic Music Studio. An active jazz pianist, trombonist, clinician and adjudicator throughout Illinois for many years, he also performed with Illinois State’s Faculty Brass Quintet and as principal trombone with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, as well as play with other Illinois and Indiana orchestra. He too has freelances in bands for headline performers and also has served as sound designer for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Stokes also has composed incidental electronic music for ISU faculty theatrical productions in New York and Chicago.
“Charlie Stokes and Jim Boitos are ‘institutions’ within the School of Music,” said James Major, director of the School of Music. “Jim has distinguished himself as a superb saxophone soloist, classical and jazz. He directed the Jazz Ensemble for 30 years, a record that will most likely never be broken. Charlie is a tremendous jazz musician as well, performing both at the keyboard and on trombone. Most all music majors, past and present, have completed at least one music theory class with Charlie Stokes.
“They are highly respected faculty members who will be greatly missed by both their students and colleagues,” he said.
