VMA's 2016 Welcome Home Concert Honors Marshall Maley

Welcome home Virginia Music Adventures’ students from all three ensembles! Join us in celebrating students from the Chapel Square Combo, the Wakefield Jazz Workshop, and the Annandale Jazz Ambassadors. The concert will be held at the Ernst Theater (8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003) on May 20, 2016. Doors open at 7:00 pm and show time begins at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10, and VMA offers free admission to students!

These 12 – 18 year old musicians from the greater Northern Virginia area regularly engage in cultural good will music performance tours frequently coordinated with the US Department of State. This year, they are thrilled to have traveled to a wide variety of locations. 2016 took VMA students to exciting locations like the following: the Chapel Square Combo visited Mexico; the Wakefield Jazz Workshop traveled throughout Virginia doing community outreach; and the Annandale Jazz Ambassadors traveled to Miami and to Cuba.

This year, the Annandale Jazz Ambassadors were honored to be one of the first youth groups to visit Cuba to share in cultural exchange programs. Their 2016 show celebrates the rich contribution of Afro-Cuban music to American jazz. The repertoire includes traditional pieces by Bennie Carter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller, and also celebrates Cuban compositions by composers such as Felo Bacallao, Mario Bauza, Luciano Pozo Gonzales, and Julian Orbon.

Virginia Music Adventures is also extremely pleased to announce the presentation of their new scholarship, the Marshall Maley Percussionist Award, presented to a percussionist each year chosen by VMA’s Board of Directors. The recipient of this award will have demonstrated the following: a dedication to developing good technical skills; an ability to support the group; a healthy work ethic with regard to practice and development; a well-rounded performance aspect on all percussion “stations”; and a good sense of humor, a willingness to accept others as they are, and above all a joy for life, music, and percussion. This award will be presented during the course of the Welcome Home Concert.

Now in its 37th year, Virginia Music Adventures is a non-profit organization that promotes the preservation of American jazz through performances by exceptional young musicians. VMA teaches young area musicians the rhythms and articulation of jazz in preparation for performances locally and around the world on domestic and international good will tours. Each year, approximately 50 young musicians ranging in age from 11-18 develop skills as performers of jazz and swing-era classics in educational programs during the school year and summer months.

For further information on Virginia Music Adventures’ Programs visit www.VaMusicAdventures.org or contact our Music Director Jon Laine at (202) 412-7271.