EWHS jazz musicians honored at Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

Edmonds-Woodway High School jazz musicians earned top honors during the 56th annual Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, one of the largest and oldest educational jazz festivals in the world, held at the University of Idaho.

Running from April 19-22, the jazz festival included over 400 student performances, a dozen world-class jazz artists in attendance and nearly 100 workshops, clinics and special exhibits.

On Friday, EWHS won in three categories:

The Mello-Aires, under the direction of Charlotte Reese, won their large-group AAAA vocal jazz category. Senior baritone Lucas Alyea, directed by Reese, also won his division.

The EWHS Jazz Combo includes, top to bottom, Max Bartron (drums), Forrest Aubrey (piano and trumpet), Nick Reinert (tenor sax) and Don Tran (string bass).

The EWHS Jazz Combo, under the direction of Jake Bergevin, won the AAAA combo category. Members included Max Bartron (drums), Don Tran (string bass), Nick Reinert (tenor sax) and Forrest Aubrey (piano and trumpet).

On Saturday, April 22 — instrumental day — outstanding soloist awards went to Max Bartron (drums) and Nick Reinert (tenor sax). The EWHS Jazz Combo 1 received the runner-up award for outstanding combo.

Jazz 1 soloist commendations included Leo Nakamura, Ella Cochran, Forrest Aubrey, Nick Reinert and Max Bartron.

Ensemble outstanding soloists from Jazz 2 included Louis Nguyen, Marcel Rickman and Maddie Jones.

Max Bartron was named the Avista scholarship winner for outstanding soloist overall.

  1. Wonderful! Congratulations to ALL, in these days of bitter irony as our School Board forges ahead to “solve” funding problems by hacking away at the very arts programs about which the District boasts. Wake up Arts-Loving Edmonds, this isn’t just about families with kids in music or drama and their teachers; it’s a community catastrophe in the making.

  2. Congratulations to a great group of students and their teachers!

    So – tell us again why these programs- as necessary as any other- are on the block?!
    I have yet to see reductions in administrative costs….

  3. We have nationally recognized instrumental music programs with irreplaceable musicians teaching our youth. We should look at other programs to cut and reduce the administrative overhead.

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