18th Annual Herb Pomeroy Memorial Concert—“Jazz Unity@MIT”

Saturday, April 25, 2026/8:00 p.m.

Thomas Tull Concert Hall - 201 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

$20 general admission

Free for MIT community

MIT Festival Jazz EnsembleFrederick Harris, Jr., Music DirectorPascal Le Boeuf, guest pianist-composerMIT Alumni Jazz BandFor MIT’s 18th annual celebration of Herb Pomeroy (1930-2007), “the father of jazz at MIT,” the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) invites Grammy-winning pianist-composer and MIT Assistant Professor of Music, Pascal Le Boeuf, to perform arrangement world premieres of his music. The intrepid MIT Alumni Jazz Band makes its bi-annual appearance at this special event featuring music by the late Jamshied Sharifi, music associated with Herb Pomeroy, jazz standards, and fresh contemporary arrangements by MIT FJE members and others.ABOUT PASCAL LE BOEUF

Described as "sleek, new," "hyper-fluent" and “a composer that rocks” by the New York Times, Pascal Le Boeuf is a GRAMMY-award winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer whose works range from improvised music to hybridizing notation-based chamber music with production-based technology.

Recent compositions include “Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?” commissioned by Akropolis Reed Quintet with drummer Christian Euman; “Imprints” for Alarm Will Sound; “Playground” commissioned by Orchestra of St. Lukes; “Triple Concerto” for violin, percussion duo, and orchestra featuring Barbora Kolářová and Arx Duo; “I Am Not A Number” commissioned by New World Symphony; and “Out of the Gate” commissioned and premiered by Nu Deco Ensemble.

Recent commercial recordings and videos include collaborations with Akropolis Reed Quintet & Christian Euman, Tasha Warren & Dave Eggar, Friction Quartet, JACK Quartet, Hub New Music, Todd Reynolds, Sara Caswell, Jessica Meyer, Nick Photinos, Four/Ten Media, Bec Plexus featuring Ian Chang (of Son Lux), Dayna Stephens, and the Le Boeuf Brothers Quintet (co-led by Remy Le Boeuf) praised by the New Yorker for "clearing their own path, mixing the solid swing of the jazz tradition with hip-hop, indie rock, and the complex techniques of classical modernism."

As a keyboardist, Pascal has played as support for D’Angelo’s Black Messiah tour and Clean Bandit’s Rather Be tour with Australian pop artist Meg Mac. He actively performs with Le Boeuf Brothers, Jessie Montgomery’s Everything Band, vocalist/technologist Jamie Lidell, saxophonist Jeff Coffin, and his piano trio "Pascal's Triangle" with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Justin Brown.

Pascal’s most recent awards include a 2025 GRAMMY for “Best Instrumental Composition”, a 2024 Barlow Commission, a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2020 Copland House Residency Award, and various Independent Music Awards in “Jazz”, “Eclectic”, “Electronica” and “Music Video” categories. Pascal has received commissions and grants from the NEA, New World Symphony, Nu Deco Ensemble, the Barlow Endowment, the Lake George Music Festival, Lincoln Center Stage, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and ASCAP.

Pascal is an Assistant Professor of Music at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he teaches composition. Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Music and Technology at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University where he was the recipient of a Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellowship. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied jazz piano with Kenny Barron.

Pascal lives in the Boston area with his wife, composer Molly Herron, and their two kids Baxter and Io.

ABOUT MIT FESTIVAL JAZZ ENSEMBLEThe MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (MIT FJE) was founded in 1963 by Boston jazz icon Herb Pomeroy and led since 1999 by Dr. Frederick Harris, Jr. This advanced 18 to 20-member big band/jazz ensemble is comprised of outstanding MIT undergraduate and graduate students studying a wide range of disciplines. An advanced combo is formed from the membership of the MIT FJE. MIT FJE performs traditional and contemporary jazz ensemble literature, including student compositions and new works written for the MIT FJE by major jazz composers. Improvisation is a prominent part of the MIT FJE experience. MIT FJE has released five professional recordings including its major jazz label debut on Sunnyside in 2015, Infinite Winds, which received a five-star review from DownBeat and was chosen by the magazine as one of its “Best Albums of 2015 Five-Star Masterpieces.”

The FJE has a long history of performing original music by MIT students and composers from around the world. Since 2001, it has presented over 50 world premieres. Among others, Mark Harvey, Herb Pomeroy, Jamshied Sharifi, Ran Blake, John Harbison, Chick Corea, Joe Lovano, Gunther and George Schuller, Kenny Werner, Don Byron, Steve Turre, Magali Souriau, Guillermo Klein, Chris Cheek, Miguel Zenón, Dominique Eade, and Luciana Souza have collaborated with the MIT FJE. In January of 2019 the FJE participated in a highly successful cultural exchange, touring Puerto Rico with Miguel Zenón, presenting concerts in various venues and also STEM workshops in middle and high schools.

Learn about the MIT FJE’s collaboration with Grammy-winner Jacob Collier in this Emmy-winning documentary. Watch the Emmy-nominated documentary The Great Clarinet Summit, featuring MIT FJE. See an overview of MIT FJE’s recent tour of Puerto Rico. Watch MIT FJE and Sean Jones perform an original composition by MIT student Alan Osmundsonand Warren Wolf perform Heal! by MIT pianist-composer Peter Godart. MIT FJE participated in MIT's 2021 virtual Commencement, performing Diary of a Pandemic Year. See an overview of MIT FJE’s history here.

If you cannot attend this performance, we encourage you to watch the livestream.

Seating Policy

Your registration through Eventbrite guarantees you a seat until 15 minutes before the event start time. 15 minutes before the concert start time, we will release open seats to the standby list. If you were not able to register through Eventbrite, you may join the physical standby line in the Thomas Tull Concert Hall Lobby up to one hour before the concert start time.

Don't miss a downbeat! Click here to subscribe to the Events Newsletter.

Seating Policy 

Your registration through Eventbrite guarantees you a seat until 15 minutes before the event start time. 15 minutes before the concert start time, we will release open seats to the standby list. If you were not able to register through Eventbrite, you may join the physical standby line in the Thomas Tull Concert Hall Lobby up to one hour before the concert start time.

Don't miss a downbeat! Click here to subscribe to the Events Newsletter.