Associate Professor of Music
As
a jazz performing artist on the tenor and soprano saxophones, Karel
Lidral has shared the concert stage with a variety of celebrated jazz
artists such as John Faddis, The Manhattan Transfer, Jim McNeely, Laurence
Hobgood, Chuck Israels, and the late Red Rooney, to name a few. He and pianist
Hobgood (who can be heard on Blue Note’s applauded release CLOSE YOUR EYES)
joined forces in 1987 as a duo and were selected as semi-finalists in the
prestigious international Hennessey Jazz Search. Lidral’s professional career
also includes membership in the Jack McDuff quintet and the big bands of Les
Elgart, Warren Covington, and Ray McKinley, as well as Bob Crosby and the
Bobcats; and he has appeared with Vicki Carr, Kate Smith, The Temptations, The
Fifth Dimension, Wayne Newton, and Englebert Humperdinck, among others. In 1992,
he was cast as a member of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in the movie BIX. An
alumnus of the internationally acclaimed University of Illinois Jazz Band I, he
was a featured soloist on the band’s album, THE BIG WORLD OF JAZZ, as well
as at the 1986 Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival, where the group, as guest
band,
premiered many new works of composer/ arranger/ bassist Chuck Israels. Currently Associate Professor of Music in the School of Performing Arts at
the University of Maine, Karel Lidral is active as a jazz educator through
teaching, workshops, guest conductorships, adjudicating, and guest artist
appearances. His teaching assignment includes all aspects of jazz studies, as
well as undergraduate and graduate music theory and saxophone. He performs
frequently in the Lidral Trio, with Keyboardist Terry Ann Lidral and jazz
drummer Arthur Lidral. The Trio performs at various arts festivals and jazz
venues, presenting concerts and workshops, and has performed live on Maine
Public Radio. The Trio is the house band on THE NITE SHOW, a weekly
entertainment show appearing on WBGR Bangor and Maine State Cable TV.
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