Hot Springs Jazz Society sends students to Jazz Camp
The Hot Springs Jazz Society sends several Arkansas high school students to Jazz Camp at the University of Arkansas at Monticello each year.
“Jazz Camp is an annual event for students to hone their jazz skills while working alongside professional jazz musicians. Students from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, are placed in ensembles, large and small, by audition. They spend the week participating in instrumental sectionals, master classes, ensemble rehearsals twice per day, and nightly performances by regional jazz bands. A professional jazz musician is employed each year to work with students in the top ensemble,” a news release said.
Students are also encouraged to play in the nightly “Jazz Jam” with other campers. The culmination of the camp concludes with concerts presented on the final day of the camp. UAM Jazz Camp is conducted by the music department of UAM, along with students of the UAM Music Department.
Students are asked to fill out an application, which includes a recommendation from their band director or private lesson teacher. Applications are reviewed by the board members, then students are awarded a scholarship to Jazz Camp by the Hot Springs Jazz Society. The scholarship chairman is board member Ron Mchone. He attended the concerts this year to represent the Jazz Society and to get a group photo, the release said.
“We are proud of our scholarship program that fulfills part of our mission to ‘Preserve, Present and Perpetuate Jazz.’ Support for the Hot Springs Jazz Society is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts,” it said.