OCSA performers Essentially Ellington winners

Osceola County School for the Arts traveled last weekend to the 27th annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition at Lincoln Center in New York City, and came home with the big trophy.

At a ceremony on Saturday night, OCSA was awarded the first place trophy and an award of $5,000, presented by jazz legend and Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis. The OCSA Jazz Band, directed by Jason Anderson. beat out 14 other top high school jazz bands that qualified for the competition. Players from the Kissimmee school earned individual honors:

Rhythm section — Honorable Mention; Reeds — Honorable Mention;

Outstanding Trombone Section; Outstanding Trumpet Section; Outstanding Brass Section;

Kiara Rouse, Honorable Mention Clarinet and Tenor Saxophone; Solomon Geleta, Outstanding Alto Saxophone; Nathaniel Williford, Outstanding Trumpet and Snooky Young Award.

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.

Donations from the School District and Disney World, along with a travel scholarship granted by Jazz at Lincoln Center, covered most of the expenses to attend the festival.

“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,” Anderson said for a News-Gazette story when the band was nominated for Essentially Ellington. “These are the individuals that make OCSA Jazz A so special and these are the kids that make us a band.”