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JALC Announces Winners of 14Th Annual Essentially Ellington

Three high school jazz bands took top honors on Sunday Night, May 10, in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 14th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival. Each band was chosen by a panel of judges composed of distinguished jazz musicians and historians — WYNTON MARSALIS, Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director; composer, conductor and Ellington authority DAVID BERGER; educator, clinician and pianist, REGINALD THOMAS; and legendary jazz trumpeter and composer/arranger, GERALD WILSON— from among the 15 finalist bands from the U.S. and Canada that came to the Competition & Festival in New York City…

Essentially Ellington culminated at sunday’s concert, where the top placing bands performed with Wynton Marsalis as a soloist followed by a performance by the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) —all of whom served as mentors for each of the finalist bands during this weekend festival. The JLCO’s performance included Duke Ellington compositions plus, for the first time in the history of the program, Mary Lou Williams repertoire which will be distributed by Jazz at Lincoln Center for the 2009-2010 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program.

At the awards ceremony, Wynton Marsalis presented prizes and cash awards to each of the 15 finalist bands. Clarence Acox, Director of the Garfield High School Jazz Band, accepted the 1st place trophy and an award of $5,000. Scott Brown, Director of the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band accepted the 2nd place trophy and an award of $2,500. Bruce Hering, Director of the Eau Claire Memorial High School Jazz Band, accepted the 3rd place trophy and an award of $1,000. New World School for the Arts Jazz Band was named honorable mention band and received an award of $750. The remaining 11 bands were awarded certificates of merit and cash awards of $500. All monetary awards go toward improving schools’ jazz programs. Awards for outstanding soloists and sections were also presented (see listing below).

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s
14th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band
Competition & Festival 2009 Awards

FIRST PLACE

Garfield High School

SECOND PLACE

Roosevelt High School

THIRD PLACE

Eau Claire Memorial High School

HONORABLE MENTION BAND

New World School of the Arts

OUTSTANDING SOLOISTS

On Clarinet
Outstanding Clarinet:
Carl Majeau, Garfield High School

On Alto Saxophone
Honorable Mention Alto Saxophone:
Justin Kevan, Badger Union High School

Outstanding Alto Saxophone:
Kyle Mark, Newport High School
Christian Cho, Agoura High School
Rune Roatta, New World School of the Arts
Kevin Supina, State College Area High School
Justin Kluuk, LA County High School for the Arts
Maria Navedo, Foxboro High School
Evan Shay, Garfield High School

On Tenor Saxophone
Honorable Mention Tenor Saxophone:
Athena Petanitis, Eau Claire Memorial High School
Christian Mora, New World School of the Arts

Outstanding Tenor Saxophone:
Xavier Del Castillo, Roosevelt High School
Scott Lamm, Agoura High School
Levon Henry, LA County High School for the Arts
Ian Frost, Garfield High School
Carl Majeau, Garfield High School

On Baritone Saxophone
Outstanding Baritone Saxophone:
Andrew Morrill, Roosevelt High School
Benjamin Blake, Agoura High School

On Flute
Outstanding Flute:
Cheng Cheng, Eau Claire Memorial High School

On Euphonium
Honorable Mention Euphonium:
Sam Grunblatt, Kingston High School

On Violin
Outstanding Violin:
Mike Gleran, Badger Union High School

On Trumpet
Honorable Mention Trumpet:
Micha Deterville, Calabasas High School
Kevin LeBaron, Beloit High School

Outstanding Trumpet:
Jason Schreiber, Calabasas High School
Matt Muirhead, Foxboro High School
Riley Mulherkar, Garfield High School
Gilbert Paz, New World School of the Arts
Gabriel Martin, Garfield High School
Corey Dansereau, Roosevelt High School
Michael Davis, Roosevelt High School

On Trombone
Honorable Mention Trombone:
Erik Olsen, Eau Claire Memorial High School
Jeff Patterson, Beloit Memorial High School

Outstanding Trombone:
Cory Boris, Kingston High School
Levi Dorris, North Scott High School
Andy Clausen, Roosevelt High School
Thomas Dover, New World School of the Arts
Elizabeth Shafer, State College Area High School
Stephen Szabadi, LA County High School for the Arts
Drew Tobias, Badger Union High School

Best All Purpose – Violin, Bass Trumpet, Trombone
Mark Van De Loo, Eau Claire Memorial High School

On Piano
Honorable Mention Piano:
Ben Berg, Wellesley High School

Outstanding Piano:
Ariel Pocock, Newport High School
Pierre Charles, Beloit High School
Gus Carns, Roosevelt High School
Benjamin Hamaji, Garfield High School
Tony Madruja, New World School of the Arts

On Bass
Honorable Mention Bass:
Nick Hennigan, North School High School

Outstanding Bass:
Evan Becker, Wellesley High School
Shawn Ferraro, Kingston High School
Brian Kasimov, Calabasas High School
Pat Kuehn, Eau Claire Memorial High School
Eric Leech, Badger Union High School

On Drums
Outstanding Drums:
Jamie Eblen, Agoura High School
Andrew Libenson, Wellesley High School

On Banjo
Outstanding Banjo:
Carl Marlkoff, Eau Claire Memorial High School

On Guitar
Honorable Mention Guitar:
Ian Ayres, Foxboro High School

Outstanding Guitar:
Adrian Garcia, New World School of the Arts
Eli Meisner, Newport High School
Adam Moezinia, LA County High School for the Arts
Justin Kopczynski, LA County High School for the Arts

The Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Vocalist Award:
Ariel Pocock, Newport High School

OUTSTANDING SECTIONS

Reeds
Foxboro High School
State College Area High School
Roosevelt High School
Garfield High School
Eau Claire Memorial High School

Brass
Honorable Mention Brass:
Newport High School

Outstanding Brass:
Roosevelt High School
Calabasas High School

Trombones
Beloit High School
New World School of the Arts
Badger Union High School
Garfield High School

Trumpets
LA County High School for the Arts
Wellesley High School

Rhythm Section
Honorable Mention Rhythm Section:
Roosevelt High School

Outstanding Rhythm Section:
New World School of the Arts
Foxboro High School
Eau Claire Memorial High School

In addition, Jazz at Lincoln Center recognized the winner of the eighth Essentially Ellington Essay Contest. The contest invited students from all participating high schools to submit an essay exploring the connections between jazz and democracy. Jazz at Lincoln Center received 80 essays from which Wynton Marsalis chose the winners. As the 1st place winner for the winning essay entitled “An American Music,” Elizabeth Vandorpe, (Boston Latin School, Boston, MA) was invited to name a seat in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and read her essay at the opening of the festival on Friday May 8, 2009.

For more information on the Annual Essentially Ellington Student Essay Contest visit: http://www.essentiallyellington.org

Where/When:
After a three-day Competition & Festival, May 8, 9 & 10, 2009 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, honors were announced during the final concert & awards ceremony that took place May 10 at Avery Fisher Hall.

How:
A photo gallery of the entire Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival and recordings of the competition performances will be available in upcoming weeks on http://jalc.org/learn/teachers-students/essentially-ellington/library?reset=1

For the Essentially Ellington Alumni MySpace, visit: http://www.myspace.com/eealumni

Background/Statistics:
2009 COMPETITION & FESTIVAL WEEKEND
The three-day festival began on Friday, May 8th when the finalist bands arrived at Frederick P. Rose Hall for a “One-On-One With Wynton Marsalis,” a reading by the EE Essay Contest winner, workshops, rehearsals, a banquet dinner and jam sessions with members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO). The three-part competition was held in Rose Theater on Saturday May 9th at 3 p.m. and Sunday May 10th at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., where the panel judged each band’s performance of three Ellington and/or Carter works. At the May 10th, 7:30 p.m. Concert and Awards Ceremony in Avery Fisher Hall, the three top-placing bands each performed pieces, one with Wynton Marsalis as a guest soloist, followed by a JLCO performance of Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams repertoire. The concert ended with the culminating awards ceremony honoring outstanding soloists and sections and the three top-placing bands. The 2009-10 Essentially Ellington season is the first time in the history of the program that Williams’ works will be included in the program repertoire. Next season’s repertoire includes by Duke Ellington: “Feet Bone,” “Lady Mac,” by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn: “After All,” and by Mary Lou Williams: “New Musical Express,” “Roll ‘Em,” “Walkin’ and Swingin’.”

COMPETITION OVERVIEW
Each year, Jazz at Lincoln Center selects and transcribes original transcriptions of Duke Ellington compositions and arrangements by other seminal big band arrangers and composers. The six selections for 2009, which reflect the variety of styles and forms in Ellington and Carter’s body of work, were: Ellington’s “Jeep’s Blues,” “Moon Over Cuba” and “Perdido” and Benny Carter’s “Symphony in Riffs,” “Again and Again” and “Movin’ Uptown.” The music along with reference recordings and other resources were distributed to all high school jazz bands that expressed interest in the program by returning a free-of-charge membership application.

Category C of the competition is for conglomerate groups, those made up of students from more than one school. The winning group receives a workshop with a clinician from Jazz at Lincoln Center. This year, American Music Program from Portland, OR took home the Conglomerate Band Award.

Throughout March and April, Jazz at Lincoln Center sent, free of charge, a professional musician to each of the 15 finalist schools to lead an intensive day-long workshop of rehearsals, lessons and master classes.

Free workshops are part of the rich 14-year history of this unique music education program, which has reached more than 275,000 students in more than 4,500 high schools across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Australia and American schools abroad. Essentially Ellington has produced and distributed more than 80,000 copies of 81 previously unavailable Ellington scores and 192 finalist bands have come to New York City to participate in the annual Competition & Festival.

This year Jazz at Lincoln Center distributed more than 8,700 newly transcribed Ellington and Carter scores, reference recordings and additional educational materials.
These materials were sent to more than 1,400 high schools in the United States, Canada and American schools in Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Taiwan.
107 bands entered the competition by submitting a recorded performance of three Ellington/Carter compositions.
The entries were evaluated in a blind screening by jazz education experts RON CARTER and LOREN SCHOENBERG.

The 15 finalists for Essentially Ellington 2009 were:

Agoura High School, Agoura Hills, CA
Calabasas High School, Calabasas, CA
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA
New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL
North Scott High School, Eldridge, IA
Foxboro High School, Foxboro, MA
Wellesley High School, Wellesley, MA
Kingston High School, Kingston, NY
State College Area High School, State College, PA
Newport High School, Bellevue, WA
Garfield High School, Seattle, WA
Roosevelt High School, Seattle, WA
Beloit Memorial High School, Beloit, WI
Eau Claire Memorial High School, Eau Claire, WI
Badger Union High School, Lake Geneva, WI

For a full schedule of Essentially Ellington, visit: http://www.jalc.org/jazzED/ee/f_timeline.html

Sponsorship:
Founding leadership support for the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Program is provided by The Jack and Susan Rudin Educational and Scholarship Fund. Major support is provided by the Surdna Foundation, The Irene Diamond Fund, the United States Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Alfred and Gail Engelberg.

Additional support is provided by the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, The Heckscher Foundation for Children, The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation, The Mericos Foundation, The New York Times Company Foundation, and other generous funders.

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Comments

  1. okay, it’s been far too long. it shouldn’t take this long to get the recordings up. what’s going on???

    jazzdude on Jun 4th, 2009 at 2:18am

  2. The recordings from the competition aren’t up on the JALC website yet, and it’s been over 2 weeks since the competition. I’m eager to hear them. Does anyone know the status on them?

    jazzdude on May 28th, 2009 at 6:44pm

  3. My son participated in EE this year, and last. I was blown away by the love and caring that was shown to all the kids, and also by the professional attitudes that the kids themselves had throughout the festival. Win or lose, each person who attended won, in my opinion.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, Wynton, for all the love and teaching that you have shown my boy, and all the rest.

    Jazzmom on May 18th, 2009 at 4:06pm