Sara Caswell will present Caswell's Jazz Cabaret Nov. 15 at the Indiana History Center, part of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis' 2007-2008 Laureate Series. GENERAL INFORMATION:

The thread that runs through Sara Caswell's jazz violin and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis is the legacy of Josef Gingold. That thread will also bind an IVCI Laureate Series program Thursday evening at the Indiana History Center.

Gingold, the legendary violin virtuoso and Indiana University distinguished professor (who died in 1995), founded the quadrennial violin competition in 1982. Years later, the teenage Caswell was among his students; in 2002 she competed in the IVCI. Though she didn't advance, Caswell boasts several victories in other classical violin contests.

As the daughter of musicologists on the IU faculty, Caswell was always well-connected to the Bloomington academic scene in music. An early interest in jazz, nurtured by David Baker, led her to carry a double major (jazz studies and violin performance) as an IU undergraduate. Now the 29-year-old has a career as a jazz violinist based in New York City.

Recalling her student days with Gingold, Caswell said: "He would always share with me some of the repertoire he used to perform" when the immigrant violinist was first making his career in New York, playing in pit orchestras in the 1930s.

"He loved the fact that I was interested in jazz, and he taught me the composers he thought were memorable," Caswell recalled. "He familiarized me with the Great American Songbook" and earlier hits, such as the 1916 chestnut "Nola."

At the cabaret program, Caswell will feature her vocalist sister, Rachel, on several songs. The program is otherwise a showcase for the unusual trio of violin, bass and piano. Jeremy Allen, the bass player, is a longtime colleague who's among the sidemen on her 2005 Arbors CD "But Beautiful." The pianist is Indianapolis jazz mainstay Steve Allee, whom Caswell got to know around Bloomington after Allee's move several years ago to Brown County and during Jamey Aebersold's summer jazz workshops in Louisville.

Of her taste in pianists, Caswell said: "I'm always looking for someone who knows how to listen and reacts to their surroundings. I've been in situations where a piano player is in their own world -- you want someone who can react."

She's no stranger to the cabaret format and revels in its informality. "I've done quite a few that are set up in this particular environment," she said, where refreshments are served and there's table seating rather than reserved auditorium seats. "Everyone tends to be a little more relaxed where food and drinks are served -- they show their appreciation a little more."

Since settling in New York several years ago, Caswell has formed regular associations with the New York Pops Orchestra and with fiddler Mark O'Connor's American String Celebration. Small-group gigs under her own name vary between a quintet including her sister and a quartet (Caswell plus rhythm section). On the side, she works with such up-and-coming contemporaries as saxophonist Erika vonKleist and bassist Ike Sturm.

"One of the huge advantages of being in New York is you have incredible musicians surrounding you," she said. "You can go almost anywhere and hear fabulous musicians. You have to go to these clubs and find the niche of music you connect with. You'll eventually find some of the same style and direction as yours. There's really never a dull night."

Caswell's Jazz Cabaret

What: An International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Laureate Series event. When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Where: Lilly Hall, Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St. Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students. Call (317) 637-4574 or visit www.violin.org.