Jazz Christmas

December 5th, 2026
7:30 PM
​
Christ United Methodist Church
​Featuring
Paul Hart Cochran, baritone
Katie Cook, soprano
Kevin Dobbe, percussion
Peter Enblom, trombone
Robert S. P. Gardner, arranger/bass
Steve Gilbertson, piano
Erin Haefner, alto
Cliff Jack, guitar
David Milne, woodwinds
Bill Simenson, trumpet

Program
To Be Announced

RCMS’ popular December and April programs come together for an evening of Christmas Jazz! Robert S.P. Gardner and jazz musicians from across the region will perform holiday favorites by Dave Brubeck and Anne Phillips, along with jazz-inspired arrangements of beloved Christmas classics.

Kevin Dobbe

Kevin Dobbe, percussion, is a composer, new media artist, performer, and arts educator whose work bridges jazz, composition, theatre, and emerging technologies. Founder of the music technology program at Rochester Community and Technical College, he specializes in integrating live performance with 3D projection mapping, motion capture, real-time video
processing, and custom software systems. As a composer, he has received commissions from organizations including the Rochester Symphony, Mayo Clinic, Rochester Civic Theatre, SEMYO, Rochester Honors Choir, Choral Arts Ensemble, and Minnesota Public Radio. A longtime jazz performer since age 13, Dobbe has also recorded with numerous regional ensembles. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Education Technology, and is recognized for advancing the expressive possibilities of performance through technology.

Peter Enblom

​Peter Enblom has been a professional trombonist since his high school days, playing with such artists as Frank Sinatra, Buddy Rich and Brian Setzer. Locally, he has played with the JazzMn Orchestra, Bill Simenson, Explosion Big Band, Mick Sterling and the Classical Music Project. In between gigs, he enjoys playing golf and traveling.

Robert S.P. Gardner

Robert S.P. Gardner has studied music theory, composition, and bass playing at Augsburg College, jazz arranging at Indiana University, and band arranging and bass pedagogy at Northwestern University.

Further studies include composition and arranging with Frederic Douglas Norman, staff arranger for Mercury Records and the NBC Orchestra, and Danny Holgate of the Manhattan School of Music.
​
He holds an M.A. in Fine Arts/Integrated Arts Education from University of Montana’s Creative Pulse program, and an M.A. in Religious Studies, Philosophy and Literature from Indiana University. In 2010 Mr. Gardner was chosen as an inaugural member of the Composer Teaching Artist Training Program with the American Composers Forum. Since arriving in Rochester in 1991, he has been active as a full-time educator as well as a freelance bassist, composer, and arranger. His works have been performed locally by Rochester Chamber Music Society, Choral Arts Ensemble, Children’s Dance Theatre, SEMYO, Sonata Singers, and St. Paul City Ballet. Mr. Gardner currently serves as Chair of Fine Arts at Rochester Lourdes High School.

Steve Gilbertson

​Steve Gilbertson is a jazz pianist from Minnetonka, Minnesota. He was drawn to music at an early age, beginning classical studies at age 6 and taking up jazz in his teen years. He was particularly drawn to not only the creative aspects of jazz, but also the collaborative nature of the art form.

Steve studied jazz piano at Drake University in Des Moines and lived in Des Moines for a number of years following graduation. During this time, he taught piano and played with several groups including the Des Moines Big Band and also played for various shows and traveling theatrical productions.

Steve relocated to the Minneapolis area in 2007 and since returning has played with numerous groups in venues throughout the Twin Cities, including the Dakota and the Artists’ Quarter. Steve remains an active freelance musician in the jazz, gospel, and rock styles. His greatest musical inspirations are his mother and older brother, as well as jazz piano greats Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Brad Mehldau. Mentors/teachers have included Jan Erickson, Scott Miller, Don Bates, Andy Classen, and Laura Caviani.

Bill Simenson

​Since beginning playing trumpet professionally in 1983 in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Bill Simenson has been a member of the Latin Sounds Orchestra, the Jazz Composers Art Ensemble, Salsa Blanca (Latin jazz), the Cedar Avenue Big Band (founding member), the Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra, the Jerry O’Hagan Orchestra (ballroom dance), Seven Steps to Havana (Latin jazz), as
well as his own quartet and quintet (jazz). In addition he played in and later led the band for the Minnesota North Stars Hockey Team.

Freelance work includes appearances with the Yohannes Tona Band, the Nachito Herrera Orchestra (A Journey to the Americas), Ronn Easton’s All Star Soul Revue, Mick Sterling and the Irresistibles, Charanga Tropical/Gran Charanga, JazzMN Big Band, Jack McDuff, Rupert’s Big Band and Orchestra, De Stiljistics, the American Classic Jazz Orchestra, the Ordway Big
Band, the band for the Minnesota Vikings, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, at area churches, and backing artists such as Cab Calloway, Steve Allen, Tony Sandler, Maureen McGovern, Joan Rivers, Mitzi Gaynor, the Temptations, and the Four Tops. Theater work includes productions at the Cricket Theater, Mixed Blood Theater, Children’s Theater, Guthrie Theater, and the Walker Art Center (with David Byrne and Robert Wilson).

Since June 2012 he has been the leader of the Bill Simenson Orchestra (17 piece big band). The BSO has performed Bill’s original music the first Tuesday of every month at Jazz Central Studios (Minneapolis). The band was on COVID hiatus following their March 2020 appearance but resumed performing every month in May of 2022. In 2017 the Bill Simenson Orchestra
released its debut recording, Big Alpaca, recorded in January of 2016. In 1999 Bill was awarded a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship in Music Composition and in 1990 a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant.
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