David Loeb (Music) was honored as a guest performer and featured presenter at the 2017 Las Vegas Philharmonic Gala at Reynolds Hall in the Smith Center on Feb. 9. UNLV's director of jazz studies, Loeb also conducted the Show Stoppers Orchestra for Lady Gaga's performance in the Encore Theater at The Wynn Hotel in December. In addition, he was the pianist for the 2016 Grammy Award-winning recording for Best Engineered and Produced Release in the Classical category, Ask Your Mama, with poetry by Langston Hughes and composed by Laura Karpman. The recording included drummer QuestLove, opera singers Angela Brown and Janai Burger, jazz vocalist Nena Freelon, jazz  saxophonist Ben Wendel, and many others with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, conducted by George Manahan. It was recorded at Skywalker Sound.