DURHAM, N. H. - The University of New Hampshire's Traditional Jazz Series will celebrate its 200th concert with jazz clarinetist and soprano saxophone virtuoso Bob Wilber Monday, Sept. 20, 2010, at 8 p.m. in the Johnson Theater, Paul Creative Arts Center in Durham. A jazz master on reed instruments, Wilber is a noted composer and arranger, and an ardent devotee of jazz repertory.

Active in jazz education, Wilber worked as director of the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory Ensemble. He has written for films, including "The Cotton Club." In his autobiography, "Music Was Not Enough," Wilber writes of his privileged childhood and subsequent struggles as a musician in the 1950s and 1960s.

To celebrate his return to Durham, the UNH Dimond Library is hosting an exhibit that spans Wilber's 65-year career with images from the Bob Wilber Collection, donated by Wilber and his wife, JoAnne (Pug) Horton, to the New Hampshire Library of Traditional Jazz, Milne Special Collections & Archives, in 2009.

"Bob Wilber: The Making of a Jazz Musician" opens with a reception Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. and runs through Dec. 17. The exhibit covers Wilber's early immersion as a teenager into the jazz scenes of Boston and New York, his unique connection to the legendary Sidney Bechet, the further maturation of his style with the World's Greatest Jazz Band and Soprano Summit, and his role in making jazz repertory an integral part of jazz education around the world.

Located in the Milne Special Collections & Archives of the University of New Hampshire's Dimond Library, Level One (room 101), the exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Saturdays, noon - 4 p.m. For questions or directions call Special Collections at 603 862-2714 or consult the UNH Library Website at www.library.unh.edu.

Reservations for the Sept. 20 concert, where Wilber will be joined by the Tuxedo Band, can be made by calling 603-862-2290 or at www.unhmub.com/tickets. Tickets are $8; $6 for students and seniors.

A photo of Wilber can be downloaded at /unhtoday/sites/default/files/newsroom/img/Wilber.jpg

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling more than 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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