Milwaukee Youth Symphony Jazz Studies Benefit (Caroline's Jazz Club 410 S. 2nd Street)
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 9, 2006
Milwaukee Youth Symphony Jazz Studies jazz combos To Perform In JVC Jazz Festival in New York DOWN BEAT magazine has invited “Bronzeville Jazz Quartet” and “Apex”, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Jazz Studies jazz combos, to perform at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City held June 12-24, 2006. The concert, which will take place at an outdoor amphitheater at 53rd and Lexington in Manhattan from noon to 3 PM on Thursday, June 15, will include jazz combos from Jersey City Community College and Kansas City Community College. Members of the Bronzeville Jazz Quartet are Kellen Abston, alto sax, Spencer Jenich, piano, Ben Foldy, bass and Fred Boswell, drums. Jenich attends Marquette University High School and the others are students at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. Members of the other jazz combo, Apex, are Sam Neufeld, trumpet, Quinten Farr, piano, Rob Lundberg, bass and Patricia Lee, drums. All are Milwaukee High School of the Arts students, except Neufeld, who attends Maple Dale Middle School. Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra / Jazz Studies, led by Clifford Gribble, Program Director, began in November 2004 and serves students in the metropolitan Milwaukee area. Chosen by audition, Jazz Studies combos performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, and in Italy at the Umbria Jazz Festival and the Tuscany Jazz Festival in July of 2005. Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Jazz Studies, is only the second high school jazz education program ever to be represented at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York, one of the most prestigious jazz festivals in the world. The JVC Festival grew out of the Newport Jazz Festival, the first jazz festival in the United States, created by George Wein in 1954. The only other high school jazz group ever invited to perform in the JVC Festival is the Jazz Lab Combo from Milwaukee High School of the Arts (MHSA). In 1999, the MHSA Jazz Lab, directed by Clifford Gribble, performed the opening portion of the “Tribute to John Coltrane” concert by jazz saxophonist, Donald Harrison, at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York. The performance, at the invitation of DOWN BEAT, took place in Symphony Space at 95th and Broadway in Manhattan received a standing ovation. In 2001, MHSA performed again at the JVC, this time in Bryant Park at Broadway and 42nd Street, and was joined this time by Berklee College of Music and Eastman School of Music. The DOWN BEAT reviewer reported that the three “combined to give the afternoon a magical dose of music.” The most recent MHSA Jazz Lab appearance, in 2003, again in Bryant Park and under the direction of current MHSA Jazz Studies Director, Douglas Syme, included jazz combos from Northern Illinois University and East Carolina University. All three ensembles were selected on the basis of a long-standing reputation for excellence in jazz education and outstanding results in the annual DOWN BEAT Student Music Awards Competition.
JazzReview.com
