Southland band hits right note on national stage
Over 50 secondary school jazz bands entered the JazzBandIt competition across New Zealand with Southland just one of two South Island bands selected in the top 10.
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The Southland Youth Jazz Band has been ranked in the top 10 secondary school jazz bands in the country and now has a trip to Wellington for the national final to look forward to.
Over 50 secondary school jazz bands entered the JazzBandIt competition across New Zealand with Southland just one of two South Island bands selected in the top 10.
They will compete at the national final in Wellington on Saturday, September 28.
The Southland Youth Jazz Band also competed at Southern Jam - a secondary schools jazz festival held annually in Blenheim - this month - where it received a Gold Award.
Twenty-two performed with Southland runner-up overall in the ensemble category (9-15 band members).
Two of the students - Sam McGregor (trombone) and Nate Sutherlands (drums) were selected for the All Stars Band. It was made up of the top jazz musicians from the festival across all the bands.
The Southland Youth Jazz Band (SYJB) was formed in 2017. It is a Southland representative auditioned band made up of the top jazz musicians from secondary schools in the Southland region.
The aim of the band is to provide students with advanced performance opportunities to extend their musicianship and technical skills with other secondary-aged school students from across the region to compete in national contests and perform at events in the community.
This year, the band is comprised of 14 ākonga (students) from James Hargest College, Verdon College, Southland Girls’ High School, and Aurora College.
SYJB Musical Director Emma Jarman said it had become a stepping stone for students to enter tertiary education in Music and careers in the likes of professional bands.
Graduates of the SYJB have completed - or are currently in the process of completing - music degrees at Victoria, Massey, and Otago Universities, studying jazz, classical music, contemporary music, and commercial music/audio.
Past and current members are also part of the National Youth Brass Band, National Youth Pipe Band, New Zealand Symphonic Wind Band, New Zealand Secondary Schools Brass Band, members of Top 20 Rockquest Bands and national solo/duo finalists, Play It Strange Songwriting Finalists, and an NCEA Top Subject Scholar for Music.
“We also have an ex-member who is a casual player for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the NZ Army Band, and another is overseas and producing music with over 20 million streams on tracks on Spotify.” Jarman said.
The national schools JazzBandIt competition was started four years ago by - sadly the now late - Rodger Fox.
It aims to elevate musicianship, broaden musical perspectives, and inspire performance.
Ensembles of 12-20 students will compete at the national finals and are judged by professional jazz musicians from Victoria University.
The winner will claim $6,000 of musical equipment from Musicworks NZ plus a recording and music video (valued at $4,250).
The second and third-placed bands will receive $2,500 and $1,500 respectively, of musical equipment.
During the year, band directors are sent a newsletter providing access to online educational materials to help with the rehearsal and presentation of the arrangements.
Participating bands then upload a video recording of their band's performance of one of the Essential NZ arrangements to the judging panel. From there the top 10 are selected for the finals.
“The contest has a large emphasis on performing New Zealand Music - at the finals, bands perform 4 songs and at least half of them have to be arrangements of New Zealand charts,” Jarman said.
The Southland Youth Jazz Band is having a Live Music Bingo fundraiser at the Southland Musicians Club on Wednesday, September 4 to help fundraise for the JazzBandIt national finals.