The Liberty Central School District Music Department will host the 27th annual Liberty Jazz Festival on Saturday, Feb. 1, in the Liberty Middle School gymnasium. The snow date will be Sunday, Feb. 2. The festival will feature high school and middle school jazz ensembles from the Liberty, Monticello, Tri-Valley and Livingston Manor school districts. The students will work with a renowned jazz artist during the day and all of the groups will collaborate for a concert at 7 p.m.

This year’s clinician is Nick Lieto, a music educator and well-known trumpet player in the Capital Region. Lieto is in his 20th year of teaching at Scarsdale Middle School, in Westchester County New York, where he serves as a band and jazz band director at Scarsdale Middle School. He received his undergraduate degree in music education from The Crane School of Music, Potsdam College, and his graduate degree from The Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College. Lieto has been teaching Middle School Band for 35 years, and maintains a private trumpet studio, teaching jazz and classical trumpet lessons.

In addition to his teaching, Lieto has performed and composed across several genres of music including jazz, classical, rock and folk. He plays with The Blue and Green Jazz Quartet as a trumpet soloist, and for the past 20 years has been composing and performing as a multi-instrumentalist with the progressive rock band Frogg Cafe.

“We are looking forward to having such a fine musician work with our students,” Liberty Central School District Director of Music Eric Aweh said.

The clinic will take place from 3 to 5:30 p.m.,  and the concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the Liberty Middle School Gymnasium. Admission for the event is $5. For a family of five or more the maximum price will be $25. Tickets will be on sale in the gymnasium lobby.

For more information, please contact Aweh at 845-292-5400, ext. 5116, or eaweh@libertyk12.org.