New Orleans native and Meridian resident Erin Rohr will join with the Meridian Community College Jazz Band, under the direction of Carey Smith, when they appear on the next MCC Arts & Letters Series event.

     This concert is Thursday at 7 p.m. in the theater located in Ivy Hall on the MCC campus. Tickets are $10, adults; $5, children and may be purchased by calling (601) 484-8688.

     Rohr, a soprano, holds a master of arts in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has toured the country with the Anderson University Chorale and as lead vocalist for Arc Ministries. Locally, she has served as a worship leader and choir director and has recently started a studio in Meridian where she teaches private piano and voice.

     She made her debut as a jazz vocalist with Carey Smith and Friends in April at the St. Paul’s Chamber Series.

     Smith has been director of bands at MCC since 1980 and has taught music theory, music history, applied instruments and music literature. He has composed for jazz ensemble, big band, chamber ensemble and symphony orchestra.

     His involvement with the Meridian Symphony since 1981 has included serving on its board of directors, as bassoonist, an arranger for the Pops concerts and most recently he was named “Composer in Residence” with their move to the Riley Center in 2007. His “Elements-Symphony” was premiered by the MSO in 2011 on the concert featuring Itzak Perlman.

     The MCC Jazz Band, under Smith’s direction was invited to Carnegie Hall in 1991 as part of the 100th Anniversary Jazz Cavalcade. Smith also leads his own jazz groups and has served as orchestra conductor for Meridian Little Theatre for the past 28 years. Carey and his wife Michele have a daughter, Cristen, and two granddaughters, Anna and Madeleine, who live in Winston Salem, N.C.

     Members of the MCC Jazz Band include Steve Moffett and Griffen Gardner, alto saxophones; Sabina Ivy and Nichol Treuil, tenor saxophones; Alan Carr, baritone saxophone; Jeff Reiter, J.B. Griffith, Andrew Pryor and Ann Berthold, trumpets; Bill Drinkwater, Tony Padilla, Hank Lambert, Les Hull, Caleb Landrum and Ryder Leifried, trombones; Will Roland, bass; Scott Kratzer, drums; Patrick Hearns, piano and Smith, piano and conductor.

     Songs to be performed include “A Warm Breeze,” “After Supper,” “All of Me,” “Am I Blue,” “At the Venetian,” “Banzai Pipeline,” “Country Road,” “Send in the Clowns,” “The Heat Is On,” “Like Someone In Love,” “Lullaby of Birdland” and “Take the A Train.”