HERITAGE SCHOOL AUDITIONS - SEPT. 3 & 12

The Jazz & Heritage Foundation’s Don Jamison Heritage School of Music will hold auditions for the free after-school program on Sept. 3 and Sept. 12.

The Don Jamison Heritage School of Music is a free after-school program that since 1990 has been the flagship education initiative of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc. - the nonprofit organization that owns the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell.

In those nearly 20 years, the program has helped to launch the careers of such well-known musicians as Sammy Williams, leader of the band Big Sam’s Funky Nation, and trumpeter Shamarr Allen, who is currently touring with Willie Nelson.

A number of the Heritage School’s graduates have gone on to study (some with full or partial scholarships) at such institutions as the Berklee College of Music, the Julliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and Loyola University’s music business program.

Each year, the Heritage School’s students perform at Jazz Fest, French Quarter Festival and many other events.

The Heritage School’s Fall 2009 semester will start soon. As in the past, the school will offer a Thursday afternoon class at Lusher High School and a Saturday class at Dillard University.

The auditions will be held:

• Thursday, Sept. 3, at 3:45 p.m., at Lusher High School (5624 Freret St.)
• Saturday, Sept. 12 , at 10 a.m., in the Cook Fine Arts Center at Dillard University (2601 Gentilly Blvd.)

Classes will continue at the Lusher campus on Thursday afternoons through Dec. 10. Classes will continue at the Dillard campus on Saturday mornings through Dec. 5.

The auditions are open to music students ages 11 to 17 from the greater New Orleans area. Instruction will be in: brass, woodwinds, piano, bass, drums and voice.

The school accepts beginning to advanced students.

Beginners should have completed at least some instruction on their instruments. They should be able to play a major and minor scale, identify notes on a staff and play at least one song. Students should own their own instruments and should bring them to the auditions.

More advanced students should be prepared to:
• Perform a song (preferably a jazz standard) that demonstrates their full range of ability
• Demonstrate an ability to improvise over a blues form in the keys of F and B flat
• Play chromatic scales (F major and B flat major) over the entire length of their instrument
• Sight-read an unfamiliar jazz composition
• For pianists and bassists, demonstrate a fundamental ability to read chord changes
• For drummers, demonstrate an ability to play “straight-ahead jazz time” (swing and shuffle beats) at different tempos.

More information, including Parent & Student Guidelines and a Student Information Form, is available online here.

For additional information, please call the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation at (504) 558-6100, or visit us online at jazzandheritage.org.

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The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc.
1205 N. Rampart St. New Orleans LA 70116 • Phone 504.558.6100