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NEW WORLD SCHOOL OF THE ARTS JAZZ BAND
IS AMONG 15 FINALISTS FOR 15TH ANNUAL
ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON
HIGH SCHOOL JAZZ BAND COMPETITION & FESTIVAL
IN NEW YORK CITY MAY 8-10, 2010
Jazz at Lincoln Center announces the 15 finalist bands and winning community band for its prestigious 15th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band .jpg) Competition & Festival. The bands will compete and participate in workshops, jam sessions, and more, during a three-day Competition & Festival in New York City. The three top-placing bands perform with Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wynton Marsalis, as guest soloist, followed by a performance by the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - whose members serve as mentors for the finalist bands throughout the weekend. The Festival's finale is an awards ceremony honoring outstanding soloists, sections and the top three bands. The Competition & Festival is the culmination of the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program (EE), which also includes regional festivals, curriculum resources, a summer Band Director Academy, monthly newsletters, and more.
Judges: WYNTON MARSALIS, DAVID BERGER, TED BUEHRER, JIMMY HEATH, and RODNEY WHITAKER
In-School Clinicians: WALTER BLANDING, RONALD CARTER, VINCENT GARDNER, WYCLIFFE GORDON, DANA HALL, SHERMAN IRBY, LOREN SCHOENBERG, and REGINALD THOMAS
Mentors: members of the JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA
ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON Finalists
Albany High School, Albany, CA
Rio Americano High School, Sacramento, CA
Dillard Center of the Arts, Fort Lauderdale, FL
New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
The Lovett School, Atlanta, GA
Foxboro High School, Foxboro, MA
King Philip Regional High School, Wrentham, MA
F. H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, New York, NY
Plano Senior High School, Plano, TX
Carroll Senior High School, Southlake, TX
Edmonds-Woodway High School, Edmonds, WA
Garfield High School, Seattle, WA
Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA
Eau Claire Memorial High School, Eau Claire, WI
Wauwatosa East High School, Wauwatosa, WI
Competition & Festival: May 8-10 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Final Concert: May 10 at Avery Fisher Hall, 7:30pm
Free tickets for each Competition Part will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis, one hour before the start of each concert on May 9 and May 10.
Tickets for the Concert and Awards Ceremony are $20 or $25 and available now at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, by calling CenterCharge at 212-721-6500 or at jalc.org.
Background/Statistics: Throughout March and April, Jazz at Lincoln Center will send, free of charge, a professional musician to each of the 15 finalist and winning community band schools to lead an intensive day-long workshop of rehearsals, lessons and master classes. The free clinics are part of the rich 15-year history of this unique music education program, which has reached more than 300,000 students in more than 3,000 high schools across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and American schools abroad. Essentially Ellington has produced and distributed more than 90,000 copies of 86 previously unavailable scores and 207 finalist bands have traveled to New York City to participate in the annual Competition & Festival.
This year Jazz at Lincoln Center distributed more than 9,600 newly transcribed scores, reference recordings and additional educational materials.
While the music of Duke Ellington continues to be central to Essentially Ellington, in 2008, Jazz at Lincoln Center expanded Essentially Ellington repertoire to include other seminal big band composers beginning with "The King" Benny Carter. This season's repertoire features the music of Mary Lou Williams in conjunction with the centennial celebration of her birth (May 8, 1910) including arrangements that she wrote for the Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman Orchestras.
This year's repertoire includes compositions by Duke Ellington, "Feet Bone," "Lady Mac;" by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, "After All;" and by Mary Lou Williams, "New Musical Express," "Roll 'Em," and "Walkin' and Swingin'."
• This year 1,550 high schools in the United States, Canada, and American schools in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, and Switzerland received Essentially Ellington materials.
• 96 bands entered the competition by submitting a recorded performance of three compositions.
• The entrieswere evaluated in a blind screening by jazz education experts RONALD CARTER, CHRIS CRENSHAW, TED NASH, and LOREN SCHOENBERG.
• 15 finalists and one community band were selected.
• Alfred Publishing is the commercial distributor of the Essentially Ellington print music library.
About New World School of the Arts
Under the direction of James Gasior, Dean of the high school music division at New World School of the Arts, numerous jazz students have been recognized for their musicianship on a national scale. Students have received Downbeat Student Music Awards and have been selected to perform with the High School Grammy Band in Los Angeles, California. At New World School of the Arts, Miami’s premiere eight-year arts conservatory, music students receive one-on-one instruction from accomplished musicians and grow through disciplined guidance and training as they develop their personal style and repertoire. Through its educational partnerships, NWSA’s audition-based programs, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art, Dance, Music and Theater, offer the high school diploma as well as the BFA and BM college degrees. Areas of concentration in Music include: composition, performance, instrumental, piano, strings and voice. New World School of the Arts was created by the Florida Legislature as a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts, is an educational partnership of Miami Dade County Public Schools, Miami Dade College and the University of Florida. Information about the Music Division in New World School of the Arts: Jim Gasior at 305-237-3539.
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