圣路易斯 - 米苏里大学的大三学生克里斯·霍林斯沃思（Chris Hollingsworth）错过了在布兰奇·图希尔（Blanche M.

Performances in the space were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the member of the UMSL Jazz Orchestra got his chance to return to that stage last week as the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival returned after a two-year hiatus.

“The acoustics are very different,” Hollingsworth said. “Anheuser-Busch Hall is much larger.”

爵士乐乐团结束了音乐节的两个晚上，吸引了500名高中学生在33个乐队中表演。在节日的15年历史中，有535多所学校参加了会议，达到了12,000多名学生。

今年，音乐节从远至密苏里州西南部的学区吸引了学区。全国知名的节日是学生在观众面前观察，学习和享受的机会。

It marked the first year the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival was led by Adaron Jackson, director of the David and Thelma Institute for Jazz Studies at UMSL and assistant teaching professor of music. The musician, educator and clinician took over leadership of the UMSL Jazz Program shortly before the pandemic began, which prevented him from immediately taking the reins of the event.

It was a large undertaking he believed would be a beneficial and educational experience.

“This festival is designed to support the development of participating schools’ music programs,” Jackson said. “Our goal is to inspire students and band directors through the experience of receiving professional feedback from clinicians and adjudicators and to provide an opportunity to experience performances from world class jazz musicians.”

Each band received an hour and a half for warm-up, performance and clinic critiques.

Sydney King, a senior and drummer with the more than 30-member jazz ensemble at Triad High School, has been playing multiple instruments, including bass guitar, guitar, piano and saxophone since she was 9. Initially, jazz didn’t interest her, but she came around and eventually saw it as a means of expression. She looked forward to the critiques in order to improve her musicality and that of the band.

“I’m hoping to gain a little bit more knowledge about how this band works because we’re really a big jazz band,” she said. “With this many people, I know we can sound a little bit better with intonation and stuff like that.”

Other students such as Natalee Huff of Parkway West High School found the festival to be beneficial as well and could glean insights not only from the adjudicators but also the other bands.

她说：“我认为看到不同经验和不同老师的不同学校真的很整洁。”“我可能会找到一首歌，也许自己学习。”

Along with students, adjudicators were excited about the festival and seeing different high school jazz ensembles. Sam Griffith, the director of jazz studies at Mizzou, was curious to see how students would put their own twist on the music selections.

“There’s so many different ways you can interpret music as a whole,”Griffith said. “With jazz soloing, people get to have their own say. I think that’s different than most other music. I think it’s one of the things I definitely enjoyed the most.”

Short URL:https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=93398