Schoenhals Visiting Artist Series Features: Great Joseph Daley

Schoenhals Visiting Artist Series Features Jazz Great Joseph Daley


Seattle Pacific University Music Department is proud to present the 2020 Schoenhals Visiting Artist, Joseph Daley. A composer, teacher, and musician, Daley is recognized as one of America’s jazz elders. His seminal work, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” will be featured in a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, January 31, at First Free Methodist Church. 

As a composer in residence, Daley will be mentoring and working directly with our students during the week of January 26. A sampling of their new works will open the Friday event. In addition to presenting his work and his teaching work, Daley will also be presenting a lecture on integrating his faith into artistic generation.

Schoenhals Visiting Artist Free Public Events


Joseph Daley Lecture
Thursday, January 30, 11 a.m. 
Nickerson Studios

Concert: “The Seven Deadly Sins”
Friday, January 31, 7:30 p.m.
First Free Methodist Church, adjacent to SPU campus

About Joseph Daley

After nearly 50 years of recognition as one of the consummate sidemen on the adventurous music scene — with remarkable artists like Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, Muhal Richard Abrams, Taj Mahal, and so many more — Joseph Daley has emerged as one of jazz’s and contemporary music’s most extraordinary composers and leaders. Stunning musicians and fans alike with his brilliant 2011 CD, “The Seven Deadly Sins,” featuring his Earth Tones Ensemble (a full jazz orchestra augmented by six additional low-tone horns, and including a seven-member rhythm section and four special guests), this powerfully innovative music mines the same rich vein of musical expression as that of such immortals as Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and George Russell, receiving rave reviews and making several Best of Year lists. 

In 2013 he followed up with “The Seven Heavenly Virtues,” and in 2014 “Portraits: Wind, Thunder and Love,” which includes the five-movement suite “Wispercussion: Five Portraits of Warren Smith” — both works featuring string orchestras.   

About the Schoenhals Visiting Artist Series

The Schoenhals Visiting Artist Series is made possible by a generous legacy endowment by Seattle Pacific alumnus Roger Schoenhals ’61. This gift makes it possible for the SPU Music Department to present a significant Christian artist to the campus community and the city of Seattle. 

We hope to expand the reach of this event by inviting a local nonprofit, Seattle JazzED, to participate with us in a special ensemble created with SPU students, faculty, and professionals performing alongside one another.

“If the music I compose provides one with a sense of beauty, inner peace, and introspection, then I am fulfilled.”  — Joseph Daley