The First Friday

What better way to start each month, than an evening of jazz at the Opus Concert Café. Offering an eclectic mix of the Corridor's best jazz soloists and ensembles, each month features a new musical talent and their tribute to the genre that has defied the eras.

Mike Conrad Trio

Mike Conrad is a composer and improviser from Bettendorf, Iowa. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies & Music Education at the University of Northern Iowa. His compositions have earned him four ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards, a SONIC Award from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers & Composers, the 2023 Sammy Nestico Award, and many other accolades. Conrad’s music has been performed all over the world by ensembles including the Metropole Orkest (Netherlands), the United States Air Force Airmen of Note, the Count Basie Orchestra, and the Chris Washburne Octet at Carnegie Hall.

Conrad's wide-ranging creative projects include a a suite of four Iowa-inspired big band pieces recorded by the Iowa Jazz Composers Orchestra, an ambitious reimagination of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony in collaboration with the Berlin-based Stegreif Orchester, and his mixed chamber jazz ensemble the All Angles Orchestra, which released an album of original music featuring Alex Sipiagin in 2017.

Mike Conrad regularly performs regionally on piano and trombone with Chris Merz’s Quartet, the Bob Washut ‘Emeritet,’ the Max Wellman Big Band, as well as several other groups, and has also performed and recorded with musicians such as Louis Hayes, Alexa Tarantino, and Greg Gisbert. His jazz festival appearances include the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Rockport Jazz Festival, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, and the Iowa City Jazz Festival.

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