Introducing the Original Cornell Syncopators

The Original Cornell Syncopators were founded in 2016 at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, by cornetist Colin Hancock with the goal of creating an ensemble dedicated to the preservation and performance of Early Jazz music. Rather than simply performing music from transcriptions, the group’s mission is to interact with and perform the music in the same way that bands did during the Jazz Age and learning the vocabulary of the music in the same way that many young jazzers do with more modern iterations of the music. In Colin’s own words, “this ain’t your regular dixieland band.” Trumpeter Paul Merrill, the Director of Jazz at Cornell helped Colin search for interested students among the music community of the school and distinguish the combo as a legitimate part of the Jazz Program. On trombone, sophomore Rishi Verma (from Ithaca, NY, majoring in Operations Research and Information Engineering) came in from the Big Band, and on clarinet and saxophones, junior Hannah Krall (from West Lawn, PA, majoring in Music) came from the Wind Ensemble and the Jazz Combos. Sophomore pianist Amit Mizrahi (from West Bloomfield, MI, majoring in Computer Science) came from the Jazz Combos, and sophomore drummer Noah Li (from Westchester, NY, majoring in Information Science) assembled the rhythm team. Colin is a sophomore from Buda, TX majoring in Urban and Regional Studies. Finally, Joe Salzano