Jimmie Herrod and George Colligan

Saturday, June 21, 2025
Desautels Concert Hall

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With “a voice like a beacon of hope” (Seattle Times), vocalist Jimmie Herrod brings singular power and expressivity to his globe-trotting career as a singer, songwriter, and entertainer on stage and screen. Herrod first came to worldwide prominence as a finalist on the NBC nationally broadcast television show, “America’s Got Talent,” earning the rare “Golden Buzzer” recognition from actress Sofia Vargara and returning the following year on the AGT All-Stars series.

As a solo artist, Herrod has appeared to critical and audience acclaim with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and with the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Houston, and Oregon, including as a featured soloist for the globally televised PBS “Joni Mitchell Songbook” concert at The Kennedy Center with the NSO, where he shared the stage with musical luminaries like Renee Fleming, Lalah Hathaway, Raul Midon, and Aoife O’Donovan.

Traversing many musical styles and genres in many languages, including jazz, pop, funk, and his own original songs, Herrod has headlined concerts at the The Luxor Theater (Las Vegas), New Jersey’s South Orange Performing Arts Center, and Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and has since 2017 toured with world-pop band Pink Martini as a featured vocalist. With two EP’s under his belt – his debut “Falling in Love and Learning” and 2022’s “Elated” – Herrod’s singular style and unique voice is poised to make an ever larger impact in the world of music and entertainment. Recent appearances include a star turn as Angel in the world premiere symphonic version of the musical “Rent” at The Kennedy Center, where his performance was lauded by Maryland Theatre Guide as “ebullient” and by Broadway World as “moving, textured, and sensitive,” and his 2023-24 season includes a return engagement with the Oregon Symphony, debuts with the Bozeman and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, and a planned solo tour.

Herrod is an alum of the Cornish College of the Arts and Portland State University.

“One of the best kept secrets in jazz….” - Chris Hoven, All About Jazz

George Colligan is widely regarded as one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, with an international reputation as a multi-instrumentalist (piano, drums, trumpet, organ, keyboards), composer, accompanist, teacher, bandleader, and blogger (jazztruth.blogspot.com). A winner of the 2015 DownBeat Critics Poll for keyboards, Colligan has a long-standing association with jazz legend Jack DeJohnette, including a recent U.S. tour with “An Evening with Jack DeJohnette and Savion Glover.” He has also led his own trio, featuring jazz luminaries Buster Williams and Lenny White, on tours across the U.S. and Canada.

As an in-demand accompanist, Colligan has appeared on over 130 albums, performing alongside jazz icons such as John Scofield, Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Botti, and many others. As a bandleader, his prolific output includes 36 albums, with his most recent release, King’s Dream (PJCE Records, 2022), spotlighting collaborations with faculty and alumni from Portland State University (PSU).

Colligan, a former New York City resident for 15 years, now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he is a Full Professor at PSU. His academic and artistic contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including two Region Arts and Culture Council grants, a South Arts Jazz Road grant, and a PSU Faculty Development grant. He has received the PSU College of the Arts Dean’s Council Award for Research, Scholarship, and Creativity (2020) and was named Researcher of the Year by the PSU College of the Arts in 2021.

Over the years, Colligan has performed, recorded, and toured with an extensive list of jazz greats, including Lonnie Plaxico, Gary Bartz, Benny Golson, Miguel Zenón, Tom Harrell, Steve Coleman, Eddie Henderson, Vanessa Rubin, Dave Weckl, Michael Brecker, Nicholas Payton, Sheila Jordan, the Mingus Big Band, Al Foster, Lee Konitz, and many others. His artistry continues to enrich the jazz world through both performance and education.

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