Jazz musicians learn while enjoying festival

The Sisters School Jazz Band program has again been recognized at the largest jazz festival in the Western states.

The SHS Varsity Jazz Band and the SMS Jazz Quintet both performed well at the 41st annual Reno Jazz Festival. Over 320 bands participate each year representing middle school through university levels.

The real value of the festival experience is educational.

Each performing band receives live adjudication, a process in which three judges separately record voice-over comments while each band performs.

This way the judges can comment on something exactly as it occurs and direct comments to specific members or sections of the bands.

Director Jody Henderson said that, "Even though our students receive very applicable feedback through the 25-minute performance adjudication, a very high level of learning occurs through hearing the incredible college and university groups all weekend long."

There is also a competitive aspect to the Reno Festival.

The high school bands are grouped into categories based on their school size.

This year the Varsity Jazz Band competed with 16 other bands in its category and was awarded fifth place. This is the third consecutive year the band has been awarded a top five placing.

The high school group actually received first and second place over the last two years.

"The varsity band is playing as great as ever," said Henderson.

"The other bands that attend Reno in our category are simply improving and making things a little more equal in the competition. The high school students earned fifth place with 245 of 300 points, the fourth-place band scored 246 points and the third-place band 247. It really could have gone either way in our classification."

The students in the Sisters Middle School Jazz Quintet enjoyed great success while representing Sisters Middle School at the festival for the first time.

The five students received second place in the middle school category. This is particularly significant recognition because the middle school bands are not divided into categories based on school size.

The band that earned first place in the middle school category was from a huge middle school in the Seattle area, according to Henderson.

All five Sisters Middle School performers received further recognition in receiving individual Outstanding Musicianship Awards.

"The judges responded with joy on the voice-over recordings, literally laughing with excitement while listening to the middle school group perform. And one judge wrote 'Thank you for putting a smile on my face today' all across his score sheet. The students were genuinely appreciated and recognized for having such a great start in performing jazz music," Henderson said.

Henderson hopes to return next year with both groups as well as the community representation that traveled to Reno with the bands this year.

"More parents were able to attend than in years past," he said. "And, Sisters Jazz Festival Chairman Tom Worcester and his wife Lois came along as supporters of our students. I hope next year we can fill a charter bus."