This week, the 28th Annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Festival announced 15 finalists for competition this year.
Each year, select high school musicians from across North America go to New York City for three days of workshops, jam sessions, rehearsals, and performances.
The Jazz Academy at Lincoln Center provides the repertoire for the bands to study and play. This year, along with the music of Duke Ellington, the Jazz Academy added selections from Latin Jazz composers Machito and Mario Bauza.
The 2023 finalists list includes three Seattle-area high school bands that have consistently been finalists in past years, and have gone on to place in the top competition categories.
Bothell High School and Seattle's Garfield and Roosevelt High School bands are finalists again in 2023.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra's trumpeter Marcus Printup made the finalists' announcement via video earlier this week:
Festival performances at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City are scheduled for May 11, 12 and 13, with the concert and awards ceremony on the evening of May 13. Tickets will be available starting April 4.
KNKX salutes the dedicated students, parents and band directors who represent our region in the Essentially Ellington program!
