The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Students learn from professionals at Lakeland Jazz Festival
The Chardon High School Jazz Orchestra is one of the 24 schools participating in the 45th annual Lakeland Jazz Festival, which is taking place March 17-19 at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland.
The student bands and orchestras have the opportunity to perform before professionals jazz musicians who are acting as adjudicators for the event and
receive instruction and feedback from them.
According to Stephen Stanziano, co-coordinator of the Lakeland Jazz Festival, the event is held for two reasons: the first to bring jazz into the community and the second for educational purposes, giving students a chance to come in and learn firsthand from the professionals.
The bands are predominantly high school bands with a few from middle schools and one collegelevel band.
Each band takes the stage and plays an average of three songs. After the performance, the adjudicators speak to each band and some band members individually, and point out what they saw with the performance and what the young musicians could do to improve.
After addressing the bands, the adjudicators present the band directors with a certificate and a sheet of comments and thoughts from each of the professionals. The directors also receive a USB drive with a recording of the performance and comments from the adjudicators to take back with them and review with their bands.
For Chardon High School, the remarks were positive. Bobby Selvaggio, director of the Kent State Jazz Orchestra, directed them to listen to more jazz music and learn how to improve with it.
Selvaggio offered the students tips, explained how music works and instructed them to learn to feel the music.
Drew Cressman, a junior, performed a solo with his tenor sax during the school’s performance. He described the solo as definitely nerve racking because the people watching are so experienced and talented.
“It was a good experience to see what they thought and learn how to feel the music, rather then just read the notes on the page,” Drew said.
Jason Tysl, a Chardon High junior and trumpet player in the jazz orchestra, believes that attending an event like this is beneficial, mainly because of the advice you get from the professionals.
“They know the music and they know their stuff,” Jason said. “It’s helpful to get advice from people other than our teachers, just to get a different point of view from someone else.”
Stephen Blauch, a senior who plays drum in the jazz orchestra, feels that the adjudicators helped him understand how to really approach the music.
Melissa Lichtler, Chardon High School band director, believes that participating in this type of event makes the kids push to better themselves.
In addition to the comments they received on their performance, the students will get to spend some time afterward working with one of the adjudicators in a classroom setting and get additional guidance on how to improve the music.