The Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts and Cinema announces the third event in its new speaker series with saxophonist and composer Tim Ries on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 6 p.m.in the Squires Recital Salon.

Ries will also be performing with the Virginia Tech Jazz Ensemble and Faculty Quartet on Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. in Squires Haymarket Theatre.

For the Speaker Series, Tim Ries will be speaking on "Funding the Arts Through Rock and Roll." Ries has performed and recorded with jazz and rock legends including Joe Henderson, Dave Liebman, Maynard Ferguson, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Lyle Lovett, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. As a member of the saxophone quartet PRISM, he has performed William Bolcom's Concerto Grosso with over 13 major symphony orchestras including Dallas, Detroit and Cleveland. He has released five compact discs as a leader and written over one hundred compositions in both the jazz and classical idioms. Ries has served on the faculties of The New School, City College of New York, and the Mannes College of Music. He currently teaches saxophone and jazz at Rutgers University.

The speaker series is free and open to the public on a space available basis and this event with Ries will be held in the Squires Recital Salon.

On Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. Ries will be featured on tenor and soprano saxophone with the Virginia Tech Department of Music Student Jazz Ensemble under the direction of John Adler. The concert will feature a special set of Ries' original music performed with the Department of Music Faculty Jazz Quartet with John Adler on trumpet, James Miley on piano, John Petrie on bass, and Nathan Alexander on drums.

Tickets for the concert are $10 general and $8 for students and seniors and will be available at the door of the Haymarket Theatre one hour prior to performance time.

Squires Recital Salon and Haymarket Theatre are located in the Squires Student Center adjacent to downtown Blacksburg on College Avenue. Convenient parking for these events is available in the nearby Squires and Shultz Dining Hall parking lots.

The Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts and Cinema is comprised of three departments from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, the Department of Music, Department of Theatre Arts and the Cinema program in the Department of Communication. It is a place for passion, imagination, creativity, experience in the arts, and applied research in Theatre, Music, and Cinema. Our mission is to elevate awareness and expand the impact of the shared creative experience through discovery, learning, and engagement.

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