Imagine sitting in the darkness of a theatre bathing your ears with the soothing sound of jazz music. This time, there is someone playing a live solo for music lovers, except the performer is in Iceland.

This is possible by a connection called “The Internet 2,” and is being experimented with in Spokane’s own Fox Theatre.

Phil Doyle, the new jazz director at Eastern, plans to bring this level of technology to Eastern’s Jazz Dialogue Festival of 2013. He hopes that there will be performers on stage and also performers on screen, playing in sync.

“This performance will be an unprecedented musical performance, because it will be a live, collaborated performance, perhaps with people performing from Iceland and Stanford,” said Doyle.

All of the details are still in the works, but Doyle is very enthusiastic about the possibilities.

Doyle has many experiences in worldwide events. He has appeared on the NBC’s “The Today Show”, “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” PBS and was a featured saxophone soloist for two years with the KC and the Sunshine band.

Jacob Lorber, a saxophonist in the jazz program, is taking lessons from Doyle.

“He is different from our last instructor, but just as talented,” Lorber said. “He played for us and he is incredible.”

Doyle has a very musical background. He played piano since he was three years old, started to play saxophone in third grade and picked up the flute and clarinet while in high school.

“My father can’t really keep a beat, but is a natural poet,” said Doyle. “My mother played piano in her youth. Whatever happened with musical ability was a compilation of those, I guess.”

Doyle attributes his musical success to a combination of people, mainly the instructors of his youth. His most memorable performance was his performance with Dave Liebman, because they performed a song that was written specifically for them. He is excited about his future with the EWU jazz department. “When I got here, I was really amazed at the level of talent and spirit of the students in the big band,” said Doyle. “ I saw a lot of heart. I saw that there was something happening here, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Doyle explained that even though he is really picky about practices, there was a second when he did not know how to correct the band because they were already at the point of fine tuning.

“During the auditions in the last week, what I saw and heard was frankly a lot of ability on multiple levels,” said Doyle. “I even placed one or two freshmen in the top band.”

Doyle feels he has been called to assist students develop their talents. “I want students to get more recognition for their talent,” said Doyle. “I want to [give them opportunities] to be more involved and to gain visibility.”

Karoline Braten, a vocal jazz student, is taking a section of a tech class from Doyle.

“He is really chill,” said Braten. “He just wants us to be able to play this instrument well so that we will be able to teach it.”

In the past, Doyle had an experience with community outreach that he would like to bring to EWU. Doyle was a part of a jazz program that went to underprivileged schools in Illinois.

The students in the program taught the students in the school’s band.

As a result, the underprivileged school was given the opportunity to compete in an Ellington composition and received a free trip to New York to play.

“Some students in that school are now attending colleges,” said Doyle, attributing part of the success to that outreach program.

Doyle would like to see a similar outreach by the students in the jazz band at EWU over the next couple of years. He also wanted to “give a nod” to the prior jazz director, Rob Tapper.

“I appreciate coming into a program that has been worked on for eight or nine years,” Doyle said.

Doyle is very conscious of moving forward as a team. He enjoys collaborating with direct colleagues and members of the bands.

Doyle feels that the jazz program is a team at Eastern.

“I am very optimistic about the future of this jazz program,” said Doyle. “The level, ability and spirit of the students will speak for itself. I am truly honored to be a part of this university’s artistic mission.”