NMS Jazz Band To Attend New Hampshire Festival

By Eliza Hallabeck

The 23 members of Newtown Middle School’s Jazz Band and its advisor Mark Mahoney are preparing for a trip to New Hampshire next month, where they will perform as part of the Clark Terry University of New Hampshire Jazz Festival.

Each year the middle school group has students try out for a spot in the Jazz Band. Roughly half of the students in this year’s Jazz Band are eighth grade students, and last year the group won Gold, the highest rank, at the Norwalk Jazz Festival. The after school student group has also performed at a Western Connecticut State University jazz festival.

The Jazz Band used to rehearse after school on Mondays, but since January, Friday rehearsals have been added to the schedule also to help prepare for the Clark Terry University of New Hampshire Jazz Festival.

“They are very excited to be going away overnight,” said Mr Mahoney.

Mr Mahoney also said the festival will feature 50 to 60 bands. It is the largest event of its kind, he said, “and it is a competition also.”

The middle school group has been planning the trip since September, and Mr Mahoney said the group was lucky to have families of the band members fund the trip.

Mr Mahoney said his group will have 25 minutes to perform and will use that time on four musical pieces.

The NMS Jazz Band is made up of eighth graders Amanda Walsh, Jimmy Craig, Emma Wolfman, Matt Carino, Matt Ingwersen, Dan Toby, Scott Alexander, Sarah Lyon, Cally Peterson, Trevor Gaines, Jimmy Buck, and Brandon Johnson, and seventh graders Jillian Milano, Pau Lleonart Calvo, Tim Cervera, Adam Wielebinski, Jordan Klein, Cameron Mitchell, Quinlan Hart, Evan Kohlsaat, Jack Palermo, Dylan Cortese, and Devon Covert.

“They continue the tradition of excellence that was set forth from last year’s Jazz Band,” said Mr Mahoney of his band.