Episcopal Academy Musicians Playing National Jazz Festival

NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA — Student musicians from Newtown Square's Episcopal Academy will be heading to Boston where they will join a national jazz festival.

The students will represent Episcopal Academy in a field of 275 other bands at Berklee’s High 51st School Jazz Festival at Hynes Convention Center in Boston on Saturday, Jan. 26.

This is largest high school jazz competition in the U.S.

More than 275 bands and vocal ensembles featuring 4,000 students from 16 states and Puerto Rico will perform at the event to compete for $175,000 in scholarships to Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive (Five-Week), the world's preeminent summer musical performance program.

The full day of activities includes clinics, jam sessions, concerts, tours of Berklee, and more. Guest clinicians include Jeff Coffin, multi-Grammy Award winning saxophonist for the Dave Mathews Band; trumpeter Keyon Harrold, whose latest album The Mugician is inspired by the shooting of Michael Brown in his hometown of Ferguson, MO; and the Almas Antiguas Quintet presented by Marco Pignataro, managing director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute.

Students will be awarded for their musical skills, while others honored for outstanding achievements in composition.

The winner of the Berklee Jazz Singer Showcase category will perform with the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, the college’s longest-running ensemble and one of the world’s oldest collegiate big bands. For the annual Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest, judges will select an arrangement by a student to be performed by the Orchestra. That student will receive a full Five-Week scholarship.

The Berklee High School Jazz Festival is open to the public for free from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston St., Boston.

Scholarship and award winners will be announced at 5:30 p.m. followed by a winners’ showcase concert at 7:30 p.m. The complete schedule is available online here.

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