The UMBC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Matt Belzer, is joined by guest artist and multi-instrumentalist Aurora Nealand for a fabulous evening of jazz.

Aurora Nealand is a sound artist and multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, accordion, voice) based in New Orleans, LA.  She is deeply interested in the sonification of everyday objects and knowledge-generation through the stories and history that Sound (with a capital S) contains. Nealand is the leader of  The Royal Roses, the non-traditional Traditional Jazz band, which draws its approach to collective improvisation’s lineage, spanning from the New Orleans Early Jazz traditions, to the AACM, and collage-sound art and musique concrete. Nealand's other musical projects include The Monocle Ensemble - her original music project and installation ensemble, redrawblak Trio, Instigation Orchestra,  John Hollenbecks GEORGE, and the Danger Dangers.  In 2019/2020 she debuted KindHumanKind- a 90 minute fully staged theatrical show at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, based on her original music.  She is co-creator of the City Songs Project (created originally for Knoxvilles Big Ears Festival),  regularly works as a musical facilitator with Found Sound Nation -an organization which facilitates international musical collaboration, and she has been involved with the Walden School for Young Composers (as a teacher/performer) for 20 years.