Dartmouth Events

Based in Central Vermont, Michael Zsoldos is a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and lecturer at Dartmouth College. Michael Zsoldos has performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Sheila Jordan, Kevin Mahogony, Houston Person, Luis Perdomo, Jason Palmer, Matt Wilson, Helen Sung, George Schuller, Armen Donelian, Bernadette Peters, Carole King, the Temptations, and many others.  Michael’s debut CD as a leader, Off the Cuff, is playing on streaming services and jazz radio stations worldwide. Currently, Michael is a member of the Miro Sprague Quintet, the Jason Ennis Quartet, and Eugene Uman’s Convergence Project; a group whose original music merges Colombian rhythms with jazz harmonies. Since 2005, Michael has been the instrumental arranger for the Dartmouth College Gospel Choir and Dartmouth Idol.  Michael composed the music for the 2017 documentary “Seeing Through The Wall: Meeting Ourselves in Palestine and Israel”. He was the orchestrator for the musical,“21”, based on the life of baseball legend, Roberto Clemente, which had its premiere at Pointe Park University in Pittsburgh in October 2014. Michael is a lecturer in classical saxophone and music theory at Dartmouth College, and was the jazz and classical saxophone instructor at the University of Vermont from 2009-2017.  He is on the teaching faculties of the Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro, and Interplay Jazz and Arts, based in the Upper Valley.  

Guitarist Jason Ennis is an exciting voice in the world of jazz guitar. His unique sound, deep groove and sensitive feel, along with a diverse background in jazz, blues, Brazilian music and classical music have made him highly in demand as a soloist, sideman, bandleader and musical director. A graduate of Middlebury College (BA in music), Jason attended Berklee College of Music (Boston) and The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Ennis has performed and/or recorded with Karrin Allyson, Tessa Souter (Motéma Music), Charles Neville (The Neville Brothers Band), Paul McCandless (Oregon, The Paul Winter Consort), The Sonya Kitchell Band (Velour Music, Starbucks Hear Music), Vanderlei Pereira and Blindfold Test, actor and musician Joe Morton, Mary Ann McSweeney’s Urban Fado Project, The Ramón Ángel-Rey Trio, Samirah Evans and Her Handsome Devils, Choro da Manhá, The Julio Botti Quintet, Pablo Ziegler and others. Ennis transcribed and edited a collection of solo guitar arrangements by his friend and mentor, Gene Bertoncini, which was published in 2012 by Hal Leonard Publishing.

Jesse Taitt, Pianist-Composer-Arranger-Educator, developed his sensitivity and technical facility for the instrument at the Boston Arts Academy, where he studied Classical music under Boston Conservatory Professor Harriet Lundberg and Jazz with Hey Rim Jeon via the Berklee City Music Program. As a student at the Boston Arts Academy and later at Berklee College of Music, Jesse played and attended master classes with Phillip Bailey, Seymour Bernstein, Dr. Billy Taylor, Regina Carter, Quincy Jones, George Duke, Walter Beasley, Doug Johnson, Laszlo Gardony, Joanne Brackeen, Patrice Rushen, Geri Allen, Gavin Degraw, Hugh Masakela. At Berklee, Jesse served as the music director for Boston based group Jazz Urbane, which is led/produced by Dr. William Banfield. His band, the Jesse Taitt Trio, performed at Boston restaurants and nightspots. During the summer of 2013, Jesse was an International Guest Artist of the U.S. Ambassador in Rwanda. There he led and co-led master classes with Joey Blake (Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra) and headlined both nights in the Rwanda’s annual Kigali UP Festival.