Annual Sun Prairie Jazz Festival to be held Saturday, February 20, 2010 at Sun Prairie High School.

Jazz Ensembles from around the state will once again convene at Sun Prairie High School for a day of clinics, performance and pure swing!!  The bands will interact with some of the finest jazz educators/performers in the country.  Clinician/Performers this year include: Ronald Carter, educational consultant for Jazz at Lincoln Center and Director of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University; Greg Abate, saxophone, professional jazz saxophonist from the city of New York; Steve Wright, former lead trumpet player of the “Airmen of Note”  and director of jazz studies at Gustavus Adolphus; Tony Guzman, director of Jazz at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and the 2009 Wisconsin Honors Choral conducto; Matt Buchman, piano and director of jazz studies at UW-Stevens Point, Brent Turney, trumpet professor at UW-Stvens Point;  Tim Bell, saxophone/clarinet and retired director of jazz studies at UW-Parkside; Brad Townsend, freelance bassist in the Madison area;  Greg Abate, saxophone, professional jazz saxophonist from the city of New York; Keith Leinert, drumset and steel drum artist from the Madison area and Kurt Dietrich, trombone, author and director of jazz studies at Ripon College among others.

High School jazz performances begin at 8:30am in the High School auditorium and are free and open to the public.  Clinics for bands run from 1:30 to 3:30 and the day culminate in an evening performance that begins at 7pm in the High School Auditorium – an admission fee is charged for the evening concert.  The concert will feature several of the High School jazz ensembles in performance with a guest clinician.  The second half of the concert will feature the clinicians in a combo setting and conclude with a blues that features all clinicians and the Sun Prairie High School Jazz Ensemble I. 

This year we are fortunate to offer 4 jazz scholarships to jazz camps here in Wisconsin.  The Indianhead Arts Center at Shell Lake is offering 3 scholarships to their jazz camps this summer and the Birch Creek Music Academy is offering one scholarship to their one of their jazz sessions as well.

The Madison Jazz Society, Birch Creek Music Academy, the Indianhead Center for the Arts at Shell Lake, Sun Prairie Education Foundation and Ward Brodt Music are major sponsors of this event.

For more information, contact Steve Sveum at 834-6804.