Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm to perform at Bridgewater College

Robert Jospé and Inner Rhythm will present a lyceum at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in Cole Hall at Bridgewater College.

Robert Jospé, a drummer, and the Inner Rhythm band, with Jeff Decker on saxophones, Bob Hallahan on piano and keyboards and Randall Pharr on electric and acoustic bass, combine funk, swing and Latin styles into a rhythm-and-grooved-based modern jazz sound.

In 1990, Jospé founded Inner Rhythm, which has performed in theaters, concert halls and clubs and at festivals and community outreach programs from New York to Honolulu.

Since 1992, Jospé has received an annual touring grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts for the band and his educational, interactive lecture/demonstration, the World Beat Workshop. He also has received funding from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for both Inner Rhythm and the World Beat Workshop for statewide concerts and educational programs.

Jospé began playing the drums at age 14 and had his first professional performance in France at the age of 16. He graduated from the Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, Mass., and attended New York University. For 12 years, he was an active performer in the New York jazz and rock scene, as well as co-leader of the fusion band Cosmology.

Jospé joined the music department faculty at the University of Virginia in 1989, where he is a member of the faculty jazz ensemble, The Free Bridge Quintet.

In 2012, Jospé received the Artist, Educator of the Year award presented by the Charlottesville Jazz Society.

The program is free and open to the public.

Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college located in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Founded in 1880, it was the state’s first private, coeducational college. Today, Bridgewater College is home to more than 1,800 undergraduate students.