LT Jazz Ensemble plays Ellington in The Big Apple

Earlier this month, the Lyons Township High School Jazz Ensemble performed in the annual Essentially Ellington Competition hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. This year marked the 20th anniversary of this national competition and is considered one of the most coveted student band competitions.

The finalist bands spent three days immersed in workshops, jam sessions, rehearsals and performances. The festival concluded with a concert and awards ceremony. Five LT students were selected for individual awards for Outstanding Performance on their instruments.

Hannah Mathieson, senior (LaGrange) - Clarinet
Thomas Korenchan, senior (Burr Ridge) - Baritone Saxophone
Kate DeMonica, senior (Western Springs) - Trombone
Christian Naval, senior (LaGrange Park) - Guitar
Mitch Galgan, senior (Brookfield) - Bass

Essentially Ellington is a program where six transcriptions of Duke Ellington’s music are made available free of charge to all schools and performing groups in the United States and Canada. This year, more than 3,200 copies of the music were distributed. Groups record three Duke Ellington pieces and sent the recordings to NYC. Conglomerate bands (all city type groups) and fine arts high schools are also allowed to submit recordings, which make the competition significantly more challenging. A panel of judges reviewed all the submissions and selected 15 groups to be finalists. This year, seven of the 15 finalists were conglomerate groups or fine arts high schools. LT was the only band from Illinois to be selected this year.

LT Band Director Mark Dahl says, “I could not have been more proud of our student-musicians. Needless to say, this was an educational opportunity of a lifetime.”