Notre Dame alum Walt Szymanski, a 1972 graduate of Notre Dame and a world-renowned jazz composer and musician, has been invited to play a special concert for the U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador, Adam E. Namm. The July 4 concert will feature Szymanski and his band, the Zulu Kings Brass Band.
Currently a full-time resident of Ecuador, Szymanski says he’s “living and enjoying life on the center of the planet where it is 72-80° every day and 55-60° at night, all year long.”
He has served as a professor of jazz studies at the University de San Francisco de Quito/IMC in Quito, Ecuador, and has a number of private music students. He also is writing and composing music for a varied clientele worldwide.
“But my main musical project at the moment is the Zulu Kings band, an authentic, New Orleans style second-line group of my Ecuadorian fellows,” he says.
Last December, Szymanski was in Detroit to play a special New Year’s Eve concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.