Simon O'Neill - Rodger Fox Wagner meets Big Band

Simon O'Neill – Rodger Fox Big Band Concert Project 2020

Wagner meets Big Band

Strategic Outcome: High quality NZ art is produced.

The Projects Mission Statement
To present concerts throughout New Zealand performing material build on the one off performance at the Wellington Jazz Festival on June 09, 2019 too rave reviews and feedback.

The Rodger Fox Big Band continues to defy musical boundaries in a stunning collaboration with international opera star and New Zealand native Simon O’Neill.

Wagner meets the world of Big Band Jazz
- Premiering new arrangements of Wagner’s Die Walküre and Notung! Notung! and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, this ground-breaking recording will unite one of the finest heldentenors on the international stage in a format that takes Wagner out of the Opera House and into the world of big band jazz. Simon O’Neill’s illustrious career spans the great operas and opera houses of Europe and the United States as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Resumes of the arrangers for the project are a who’s who of jazz and popular music and include:
Matt Harris – American Grammy nominated composer / arranger / pianist. Performed and written for the famed Buddy Rich & Maynard Ferguson Big Bands. Head of Jazz Studies University of Northridge, Los Angeles.

Bill Cunliffe – American Grammy award winning composer/ arranger/pianist. Performed and written for the Buddy Rich Big Band. Head of Jazz Studies Fullerton University Los Angeles.

Francisco Torres - Trombonist, bass trombonist, composer, arranger and clinician who hails from the state of Sonora, Mexico but calls Los Angeles, California home. He is equally at home with jazz, classical, latin, funk, reggae, ska, and studio work. He is the trombonist and musical director for the Grammy-Award winning Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, as well as a member of Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. Francisco has in recent years produced and arranged for Poncho’s albums garnering several Grammy nominations