Exeter, NH (April 28, 2008)—Phillips Exeter Academy closes out this year’s Gilbert Concert Series with the ninth annual Tommy Gallant Memorial Concert, featuring pianist Geoffrey Keezer, drummer Les Harris, Jr., saxophonist Charlie Jennison, and bassist Marty Ballou on Tuesday, April 29, 7 p.m., in Phillips Church,  on Tan Lane in Exeter. The event is free and open to the public.

Born into a musical family, Keezer began studying piano at the age of three. In 1989, after completing his first year at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, the then 18-year-old Keezer received offers to work with Miles Davis and Art Blakey.

He chose Blakey and began a career working with virtually every living legend of jazz and appearing on numerous recordings, both as leader and accompanist. Keezer’s professional career has included many projects and genres, among them a 1992 performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; and a 1998 release, "Turn Up The Quiet", featuring Grammy winning vocalist Diana Krall, Joshua Redman and Christian McBride.

Time magazine wrote that Keezer possesses “a refreshingly open-eared sensibility in the modern manner, and has more than enough virtuosity and sheer musical wit and intelligence to weave all of his apparently disparate strands of influence into an original and compelling whole.”

A 1983 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Harris teaches drums and ensembles at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Southern Maine, Phillips Exeter Academy and the Amesbury Public Schools. He began playing the drums at a young age under the tutelage of his father. By the age of 14, he was sitting in with jazz greats Herb Pomeroy, Bob Wilber, Dave McKennna, John LaPorta, and Teddy Wilson.

Multi-instrumentalist Jennison began his jazz career in 1961, playing at rotary clubs and at other local functions while still in junior high school. While attending the University of New Hampshire, he formed a jazz combo, graduating in 1961 with a degree in Music Education. He studied with a variety of major jazz figures, including Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Mariano. Jennison is an instructor in saxophone at Phillip’s Exeter.

Ballou began his career as a bass player performing with The Ritz. In 1992, he became a member of Duke Robillard’s Band, traveling around the world for five years. Since 1998, he has been a sought-after session musician in New England, recording and performing with some of the area’s finest jazz musicians.

For further information, please call Patrice Baker in the music department at (603) 777-3453, or visit its webpage for a complete list of upcoming events at Musical Events calendar page. You may also call the PEA public events line at (603) 777-4309. Directions to the Academy are available at (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, a Phillips Exeter Academy education will now be free to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less. Committed to educational excellence, the school meets all demonstrated financial aid needs of its admitted students, making the Academy effectively “need blind.” The diverse student body comes from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds approximately from 45 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and 23 foreign countries.