Thursday, Feb. 27, Museum University Student Engagement presented its inaugural event, “Student Jazz Night,” at the newly renovated Muscarelle Museum Of Art. The performance featured student group Wham Bam Little Band and professional Richmond-based group Weldon Hill. With a small army of volunteers and a not-so-small army of an audience, the Muscarelle was filled for the first of what MUSE hopes will be a long series of concerts, exhibitions and events.
The event opened with a performance by Wham Bam Little Band, a student-led jazz group that performs at on and off campus events. The Little Band consisted of seven members: a pianist, guitarist, bassist and drummer, as well as three saxophones.
Little Band is a subsection of Wham Bam Big Band, which is exactly what it sounds like — the larger, complete jazz band. Big Band puts on various performances throughout the semester; however, Little Band is available for hire at whatever event needs some jazz to spice up the mood: a cocktail hour, fundraiser or even the College of William and Mary Yule Log ceremony.
Antonios Tsompanidis ’26, the current director of both bands, was one of the performers Thursday night, playing the alto saxophone.
“We’re trying to promote jazz throughout campus for smaller events and whatnot,” Tsompanidis said.
Tsompanidis expanded on the difference between the Little and Big Bands.
“This setting allows you to be more, in a way, intimate with the different people that you’ve met in the Big Band, but you explore the traditional standards as they’re called,” Tsompanidis said. “It’s just a larger sound, divisions and dissections, saxophones, trombones, trumpets, full sound, full rhythm.”
The Little Band website mentions that Little Band can be as large or small as needed, ranging from three pianists to an 8-piece combo with vocals to boot.
After the Little Band played its set for the first half of the event, Richmond-based guest group Weldon Hill took the stage. Weldon Hill is headed by its pianist for whom the group is named and consists of James Gates on saxophone, Billy Williams on drums and Michael Hawkins on bass.
Hill is a jazz composer who has performed with the Virginia Symphony Jazz Orchestra and Symphony Pops, the United States Air Force Rhythm in Blues Jazz Ensemble and countless modern masters of jazz. Each artist playing with Hill at the event had their own repertoire and history, bringing an individual style to the band.
Weldon Hill captivated the audience for the better part of an hour, with performances including one song written by Hawkins, before eventually bringing Little Band back to the stage for an impromptu and collaborative finale. The bands played together with little communication beyond a glance and their shared understanding of the language and standards of the music they played, even giving time for every artist to have a brief solo performance. Tsompanidis commented on being invited to play alongside Weldon Hill.
“We had no idea that was going to happen,” Tsompanidis said. “It’s awesome to be able to do that.”
The Little Band’s excitement to play alongside Weldon Hill was palpable as the musicians smiled and laughed when not actively playing. The result was a quite lengthy round of applause from the audience.
MUSE, a recently formed organization that promotes the link between students and the newly reopened Muscarelle Museum, organized the entire night. Co-chairs Max Belmar ’25 and Sierra Manja ’26 provided insight as to what MUSE does.
“We’re really eager to bring new voices and students of all majors into the museum space,” Manja said. “We just want to open up that sort of exclusive environment that the museum has historical background into everyone.”
Museums often create opportunities for people who would not ordinarily come across arts in their daily lives or professions. Belmar added that MUSE hopes to use such a strategy to boost the Muscarelle’s presence across campus.
“We’re trying to sort of bridge the gap between STEM and humanities,” Belmar said. “I feel that with events like these, and then some of our lecture series events coming up later in the spring, we could sort of bridge that gap.”
Williamsburg residents can follow MUSE on Instagram (@muse.wm) for updates on upcoming events and ways to get involved and check out the Muscarelle Museum website for upcoming events, exhibits and more.
Students interested in performances by Wham Bam’s Big and Little Bands can check out their website at whambambigband.weebly.com or follow them on Instagram (@whambambigband).
For more information on Weldon Hill, visit his official website at weldonhill.com.
