Fresno City College Hosts 28th Annual City Jazz Festival

FCC Alumnus Headlines Evening Concert

The 28th annual City Jazz Festival returns to Fresno City College on Thursday and Friday March 22-23, 2018. The event features performances by student groups during the day, plus a special evening concert with jazz trumpet recording artist, FCC alumnus Gilbert Castellanos and the Fresno City College Jazz Ensemble on Thursday evening March 22.

Admission to the daytime student performances is free; tickets for the Thursday 7:30 p.m. Headliner Concert in the FCC Theatre are $15 general, $12 senior/JazzFresno member, and $10 student. For more information about the City Jazz Festival, contact the FCC Box Office at (559) 442-8221, or visit www.cityjazzfestival.com.

City Jazz has awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships over its many years. This year’s festival will continue that tradition, with awards to many summer jazz programs as well as scholarships to FCC.

For more information on the City Jazz Festival, please contact Mike Dana at mike.dana@fresnocitycollege.edu.

Gilbert Castellanos

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, trumpet whiz Gilbert Castellanos attended Fresno’s Roosevelt School of the Arts and Fresno City College. Later, he also studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and Cal Arts in Los Angeles.

Castellanos has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Diana Krall, Al Jarreau, Wynton Marsalis, and Branford Marsalis, just to name a few. He is a member of the L.A. based Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, and also performs with the Anthony Wilson Nonet, Charles McPherson Quintet, Willie Jones III Quintet, Gilbert Castellanos Quintet, the New Latin Jazz Quartet, and the Latin Trumpet Summit. In addition, he teaches jazz at USC’s Thornton School of Music.

In 2016, he performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in an all-star band conducted by Quincy Jones and John Clayton. Last year, Castellanos launched the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, a non-profit year-round after-school program that focuses on the educational component of music: jazz theory, history, cultural context, Latin/afro/Brazilian rhythms, master classes, etc. And of course, he remains one of the most in-demand jazz artists in Southern California.