OCSA jazz band headed to Ellington Festival

Image
  • The Osceola County School for the Arts is returning to the Essentially Ellington festival in May. PHOTO/JASON ANDERSON, OCSA
    The Osceola County School for the Arts is returning to the Essentially Ellington festival in May. PHOTO/JASON ANDERSON, OCSA
Body

The Osceola School for the Arts band will be returning, for the first time since 2019, to New York’s Lincoln Center for Essentially Ellington, the nation’s premier jazz education event, May 5-7. They are one of only 15 high school-aged bands out of a pool of 89 schools from across the country selected to perform and compete at the festival.

In his first year as Director of Jazz Studies and the band’s leader, Jason Anderson has known how good the band was from the start.

“When Jazz at Lincoln Center sent master bassist and educator Rodney Whitaker down to work with the band. It was very encouraging to hear him only focusing on the very high-level aspects of playing. It really spoke to the level that the kids are playing at now,” Anderson said.

Each high school grade is represented in the band and, previously, the Jazz Band competed at the festival in back-to-back years 2017-18.

Essentially Ellington is named in honor of the iconic Big Band leader, Duke Ellington, of the 1930s and ‘40s. It is a free program for high school jazz bands that aims to elevate musicianship, broaden perspectives, and inspire performance. Famed New Orleans jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The three-day festival allows students, teachers, and musicians from across North America to participate in workshops, rehearsals, and performances, concluding with an evening concert and awards ceremony featuring the three top-placing bands. The show closes with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Disney World provided a $20,000 donation for the trip to New York City. Some school district funds, plus a travel scholarship granted by Jazz at Lincoln Center, are covering most of the expenses to attend the festival. Band leader Anderson sees great things for the band ahead.

“One thing we’re trying to keep in mind is that our band is fairly young, which means we have an excellent chance of being selected for the Essentially Ellington competition next year as well. My goal is to go every year! So, we would always welcome more support”, he said.

When asked about what made the band so good, Anderson said: “We definitely have a few outstanding soloists in the band. Nathaniel Williford and Daniel Portuondo are our two fantastic trumpet soloists. Solomon Geleta is our lead alto saxophonist and a strong leader in the band. Isaiah Bravo is our top drummer who brings so much energy to each song. Ella Kim is a fantastic freshman pianist on the rise as well. But I think the real highlight in the band is all of the supporting players; the students who don’t have solos but put in just as much work as our soloists sometimes. These are the individuals that make OCSA Jazz A so special and these are the kids that make us a band.”

For more information on supporting the band financially, go to https://bit.ly/3O9QKXq