Bassist/educator Jim Widner elected to Jazz Education Network board of directors

Bassist and educator Jim Widner has been elected to the board of directors of the Jazz Education Network (JEN), a relatively new organization formed in 2008 not long after the collapse of the International Association of Jazz Educators. JEN's Web site says the group is "dedicated to building the jazz arts community by advancing education, promoting performance and developing new audiences."

The newly elected board has seventeen members who took office on July 1 and will have their first official meeting this week in Columbus, OH. The JEN board of directors includes both full-time educators like Widner (who directs the jazz studies program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and runs several summer jazz camps) and working players with a strong interest in jazz ed, such as bassist John Clayton and trumpeter Terrell Stafford.

Von Doren, Ehrlich to perform at IAJE conference

The International Association of Jazz Educators is having its annual conference this week in Toronto, and among the more than 100 concerts associated with the event will be a performance by guitarist Matthew Von Doran, who will be doing a set as part of Mel Bay Records' guitar ensemble MB3 alongside fellow plectrists Corey Christiansen and Vic Juris. St. Louis native Marty Ehrlich will also perform at the conference in a duo with pianist Myra Melford.