Simsbury Students to Compete at Berklee High School Jazz Festival

Submitted release

Simsbury High School students will soon join others from across the country for an annual jazz festival at Berklee College.

The largest high school jazz competition in the U.S. - the Berklee College of Music 45th High School Jazz Festival - will host more than 200 bands and vocal ensembles featuring 3,000 students from 13 U.S. states and Puerto Rico competing for $175,000 in scholarships to Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program.

Participants will also enjoy clinics and concerts by award-winning singer/songwriter/trombonist Aubrey Logan, whose jazz, neo-soul, and pop sound defines the new generation of contemporary musicians, and the Metta Quintet, featuring some of today’s brightest jazz artists including Berklee alumni Lawrence Fields Hans Schuman and resident ensemble of New York City-based jazz preservation initiative JazzReach.

The entire event is free and open to the public, and will take place on Saturday, March 2, 2013, at the Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Scholarship and award winners will be announced at 5:30 p.m., followed by a winners showcase concert at 7:30 p.m. Find the complete schedule at berkleejazz.org.

In addition to witnessing the performances by the top high school jazz bands in the country, audiences will experiences top Berklee students in Berklee’s Tower of Power ensemble, the Berklee Rainbow Band, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and the Marine Corps All Star Band, led by Berklee alumnus Chief Warrant Officer Stephen B. Giove.

Students will also be honored for outstanding achievements in jazz composition. Aditya Raguram is this year’s winner of the Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest. The Princeton (NJ) High School student will hear his composition “Remember” performed by the Rainbow Band, and he’ll  receive a full scholarship for the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program.

About Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, for over 65 years, has evolved to support its belief that the best way to prepare students for careers in music is through contemporary music education. The college was the first in the U.S. to teach jazz, the popular music of the time. It incorporated rock n’ roll in the 1960s, created the world's first degree programs in film scoring, music synthesis, and songwriting, and, in recent years, added world music, hip-hop, electronica, and video game music to its curriculum. With a diverse student body representing over 80 countries, a music industry "who’s who" of alumni that have received 250 Grammy Awards, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today – and tomorrow.