Nine local high schoolers to show their stuff at the Ottawa Jazz Festival

A nonet of Ottawa-area high school students will perform at this summer’s Ottawa Jazz Festival after being mentored during a 16-week intensive program by guitarist Roddy Ellias and other top Ottawa jazz players.

The so-called “Jazz-Ed” Program is a partnership between the jazz festival and Carleton University. Coaching the students along with Ellias will be the drummer and Carleton music professor Jesse Stewart, bassist John Geggie, saxophonist Mike Tremblay, saxophonist and composer Rob Frayne and saxophonist Petr Cancura, who is also the festival’s programming director and director of the Jazz-Ed program.

“The goal is to present pre-college level students the opportunity to study jazz with some of the best musicians in the city,” Cancura said in a statement. “We had an overwhelming interest in the program and as a result the band is very high level,” said Cancura.

“We chose a smaller group format that can function like a small ensemble yet be big enough to provide the full colour of a large ensemble. With a small enough group, the musicians can work on improvising, rhythms, conceptual composition and free jazz interaction ... things you cannot do with a large ensemble.”

The 2013 Jazz-Ed class includes: Nepean High School’s Keagan Eskritt (drums), Canterbury High School’s Ben Heard (bass), Nepean High School’s Robert Wannell (guitar), Canterbury High School’s Ben Michel (piano), Nepean High School’s Ben King (trumpet), Earl of March Secondary School’s Colin Lloyd (trombone), Canterbury High School’s Mitchell Whalen (bass trombone), Bell High School’s Patrick Smith (tenor saxophone), and All Saints Catholic High School’s Lucia Lacovitti-Villeneuve (vocals).