Members of the Newtown High School Gold Jazz Band attended the 49th Annual Berklee High School Jazz Festival at Berklee College of Music in Boston on Saturday, February 11.

According to the college, more than 200 bands and vocal ensembles competed during the festival.

"It was terrific," said NHS Director of Bands Kurt Eckhardt on Monday, February 13. "The band played very, very well."

Mr Eckhardt and Assistant Band Director Chris Carley both attended the festival with the members of the Gold Jazz Band, which Mr Eckhardt said finished seventh in its division out of 16 bands. All of the bands that competed in the festival were fantastic, Mr Eckhardt said, adding that attending the festival gave the NHS group a chance to hear other groups perform.

This was the fourth year in a row the NHS Gold Jazz Band attended the festival. This year Mr Eckhardt said the band performed three songs by Count Basie: "C.B. Express," "The Queen Bee," and "Lambeau Leap."

"I felt the kids performed extremely well," said Mr Eckhardt.

Students in this year's Jazz Gold Band are Ryan Brown, Jillian Milano, Zoe Lloyd, Jenna Ehnot, Andrew Buzzi, Gracie Sholtes, Jack Bittman, Ian Klepacki, Thomas Jensen, Kevin Reiss, Tim White, Bryce Doherty, Adam Wielebinski, Thomas Stanczyk, Bryan Ingwerson, Jordan Klein, Jimmy Doutney, Adam Wolff, Maggie Koekkoek, Shilin Ray, Jacob Clements, Aidan Schmid, Thomas Hasselberger, and Conor Brennan.