By: Joanna Domson

Sentry Staff Reporter

On Saturday January 25, the Jazz Band hosted their first annual Essentially Ellington Regional Jazz Festival.  The festival featured jazz sets from several high school bands in the region including Fairfax High School, Washington-Lee High School, Herndon High School and, of course, the Yorktown Jazz Band.  The U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble also performed at the festival and ran clinics for the various instrument groups on playing in the notable “Ellington style.”  Not only was this festival a showcase of the talents of the various musicians in the region, but also a competition for the groups that attended. Unfortunately, none of the musicians from Yorktown were in the running, because they were hosting the event.

Essentially Ellington is a program for High School Jazz Bands run by the Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) group, which is based in New York City.  JALC provides music from Duke Ellington and other distinguished composers and arrangers to the High Schools that take part in the program.  This year is the first year that a Regional festival has been in Northern Virginia.  Brian Bersh, the Band Conductor, did a lot of work on trying to get a Regional Festival here in Northern Virginia and worked very hard with his students to prepare them for this performance.

“Its a way of trying to keep jazz alive, but also give schools internationally the resources to be able to play that music, because a lot of it was never published or has since gone out of publication,” said Bersh about the Essentially Ellington program.

Bersh had been working tirelessly on introducing a competition into the region since he started working at the school three years ago.

“This summer I went to New York and talked to (the JALC) about it and got them to accept (a regional competition), so hopefully it will be an annual event,” said Bersh about his work on starting the Jazz Festival.

The musicians also worked very hard in preparing to showcase their abilities in front of judges and clinicians, who offered advice to the various band members after their performances.

“We had lost a lot of rehearsal time the week before the festival, but we have at least two morning rehearsals a week and we have a two and a half hour rehearsal on Wednesday nights,” said sophomore Michaela Morrison, a saxophonist in the Jazz Band.

When the musicians played in the Jazz Festival they may have been nervous, but their music certainly did not reflect it.  All of the practice really did pay off.

“It surprised me that jazz was such a collaboration of expertise, and that it was so widely studied.  I thought it was amazing,” said sophomore Alison Gaylord, who attended the festival to help set up.

Overall, the Jazz Festival was a eye opening experience into the world of jazz, and the work that the teachers and students put into the music.  Hopefully this wonderful exhibition of talent can continue for years to come.