The Big Broadcast!

The Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College presents the 18th edition of THE BIG BROADCAST on Saturday, March 4, at 2 and 7:30 p.m. THE BIG BROADCAST is a 90-minute tribute to the 1940s radio show created by and directed by Mark Gionfriddo. 

Gionfriddo created THE BIG BROADCAST for a small cabaret group he directed and incorporated into the concert season at Mount Holyoke College. It has since been designated as a ‘Signature Event’ at the college.

This year’s show comprises all new material never performed at the event. “We’re presenting eight new arrangements from the Golden Age of Radio, along with some radio commercials of the day and a Western serial.” Music featured in this year’s edition includes

Gershwin’s “Fascinating Rhythm”; “Relax, Max” made famous by Dinah Washington; Doris Day & Les Brown’s “Love Me Or Leave Me”; and the Andrews Sisters hit, “Well, All Right! (Tonight’s The Night)” in a special radio version with the Glenn Miller Orchestra originally heard on the Chesterfield Broadcasts.

Brenda Garton-Sjoberg, a faculty member at Western New England University and former evening television news anchor who worked at 22News and WWLP-TV, will reprise her role of emcee Julie Graham.

 Performance sponsors of THE BIG BROADCAST are Mount Holyoke College, The Republican Newspapers, Prime Magazine, New England Public Radio, WWLP-22News/The CW Springfield, and Loomis Communities.

 Tickets are available at the UMass Fine Arts Center Box Office, (413) 545-2511, at fac.umass.edu, and available at the door the day of the performance.