Our AM Jazz Ensemble returned from NYC late last night, after a fantastic five days participating in the Essentially Ellington Festival. Mr. Kiesner and I will be back at school tomorrow. Our thanks go out to the many of you who followed us on the live streaming webcast. Jeric Rocamora was featured nationally on the CBS Evening News!

The top three groups were-
Tuscon Jazz Institute (a conglomerate group of kids from Southern Arizona)
Jazz House Kids (a conglomerate group from New Jersey)
Dillard School for the Arts (Florida)

Rio players won many awards, presented by Wynton Marsalis-
Outstanding saxophone section- Lucas Bere, Hannah Oldfield, Mikey Escobar, Kimberly Dunning and Erik Ramazzini
Joshua Kravitz- Honorable Mention  piano
Emma Hollis- Outstanding Bass
Devan Kortan- Outstanding guitar/ banjo
Lucas Bere- Outstanding alto sax
Andrew Stephens- Outstanding trumpet

Here’s a link to the CBS News story that included lots of Jeric, and brief footage of Rio in rehearsal- http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/young-musicians-gather-for-master-class-with-jazz-great/

SJUSD filmed an excellent feature on Jeric too- http://vimeo.com/93424041

And a link to the performance with a great interview with Mr. Murray and Andrew Stevens –
Ellington 2014

Congratulations and great job to all the kids!

We can hear all the Essentailly Ellington band performances live streamed. Go to the Essentailly Ellington Facebook page (link below) then click livestream.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/EssentiallyEllington

AM performs at Ellington on Saturday May 10 at 1:50pm East coast time  (10:50 pacific time)

Then if Rio is picked to be one of the top 3 bands they play at the showcase concert at 7:30pm (4:30 pacific time)

GO RIO!

What a great concert on Friday night! All of the bands once again displayed that Rio Band kids are the finest group of young people to be found anywhere.  Along with the fabulous music, we handed out quite a few awards, all of which were voted on by the students, and approved by the directors. Here’s a list of the award winners:

Jazz Workshop:  
Positive Spirit- Raven Kauba
Most Improved- Daniel Weiss, August Kauba
Hardest Working- Duncan Woodmansee
MVP- Adam Bly

FM:
PS- Rosie Morehead, Valentina Makovey 
MI- Sebastian Smith
HW- Caleb Swain
MVP- Duncan McElman, Sean Nelson
PM:
PS- Ian Richmond
MI- Jackson Stafford
HW- Tommy Wong
MVP- Kyle Nixon
AM:
PS- Sarah Pearlman
MI- Mikey Escobar
HW- Lucas Bere
MVP- Andrew Stephens
ICB:
PS- Athena Eriksson
MI- Trevor Singley
HW- Charlotte Heeg                
MVP- Raven Kauba
ACB:
PS-  Rosie Morehead
MI-  Reid Nixon
HW- Bryn Swain
MVP- Jeff Peel, Nick Augusta
HCB:
PS- Sarah Pearlman
MI- Jonathan Gutmann
HW- Emily Dunning, Kimberly Dunning
MVP- Lucas Bere
Smamble:
PS- Sarah Pearlman
MI- Ryan Clark
HW- Nolan Cyr
Most Creative- Sarah Pearlman
Player of the Year- Sarah Pearlman, Gwennie Giles
Program-wide awards:
Freshman of the Year- Duncan McElman, Amanda Carroll

Mentor of the Year- Sarah Pearlman, Aria Tung

Patrick S Gilmore (versatility)- Lucas Bere, Jeric Rocamora

James Brown (excellence in Pop music)- Devan Kortan

Louis Armstrong (excellence in Jazz)- Andrew Stephens

John Philip Sousa (spirited, dedicated band student)- Sarah Pearlman, Lucas Bere

Directors’ Award (most valuable student in entire Program)- Lucas Bere
And thank you to ALL of our wonderful seniors:
Gwennie Giles
Emmanuel Bautista-Dizon
Kelsey Telander
Julia Grimmett
Zack Kennedy
Sabrina Gunter
Riley Read
Katie Kramer
Eddie Gardizi
Kimberly Dunning
Joshua Kravitz
Emma Hollis
Andrew Stephens
Jeric Rocamora
Rachel Provance
Devan Kortan
Aria Tung
Sarah Pearlman
Lucas Bere

Congratulations to everyone for a great night!