Sisters Jazz Band wins championship

The Sisters High School Varsity Jazz Band walked away from the Capital Conference Jazz Band Festival Competition, on Wednesday, February 15 with top honors — for the seventh time.

Sisters High School is the only school to have more than one band participate in this Capital Conference event. Sisters has annually had two bands on the program over the last four years. This year both the Varsity and Junior Varsity bands gave excellent performances, representing dedicated work done by 32 Sisters School District students.

This year the event was hosted for the first time at Sisters High School, sponsored by two organizations, the Sisters Jazz Festival and Just Joe’s Music.

The sponsorship made it possible to staff the event with two adjudicators to act as judges for the competition and as clinicians for the workshops at the event. Time is scheduled at the end of each band’s performance to work with the adjudicators to gain feedback and suggestions.

This year the adjudicators for the Capital Jazz Band Festival were trumpeter Tim Leopold and saxophonist Corey Lanini, both graduate students of the University of Oregon Jazz Studies program.

The U of O program is known nationally for the grounded curricular process and organization associated with their program content. Consequently the top U of O Jazz Band has been the number-one university band (out of over 80) at the Reno Jazz Festival each year they have attended over the last 15 years.

The U of O second band, fully directed by graduate students, has placed in the top 10 just as consistently in the same category. Additionally, each year the U of O attends the Reno event, the Outstanding Jazz Musician award has gone to a U of O student.

This year at the Capital Conference Festival in Sisters, Sisters’ Varsity band received first place for the seventh consecutive year. In addition to again receiving first place as a band, the following Sisters students also received awards: Tyson Edmunson — outstanding trumpet player; Jared Henderson — outstanding bassist; and Justin Veloso — outstanding drummer and auxiliary percussionist.

The Sisters High School Jazz Bands will appear with the U of O and Lane Community College bands at Sisters High School on April 26, then at the Reno Jazz Festival over the following weekend. They will also perform at the Northwest Jazz Festival at Mt. Hood College on May 6.