Monterey Jazz Festival offers four performing ensembles on the local and national level. The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra features the best high school jazz musicians from around the country. The Monterey Jazz Festival Regional All-Star Band, and the Monterey Jazz Festival Regional All-Star Vocal Ensemble are comprised of local students in the Jazz in the Schools Program and are selected on their performance skills.
Monterey Jazz Festival brings together 20 of the most accomplished high school jazz musicians from across the country to form the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (NGJO) directed by GRAMMY-nominated pianist and composer Gerald Clayton. Tenure in the NGJO culminates in a main stage performance in September at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the 2023 Artist-in-Residence, Lakecia Benjamin. Established in 1971, former members of the NGJO are a formidable list of contemporary stars in the jazz world and include Benny Green, Patrice Rushen, Joshua Redman, Ambrose Akinmusire, and many others.
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The Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo was created in 2019 to feature top high school women jazz players from throughout the United States. This small combo, directed by award-winning bassist, vocalist and composer Katie Thiroux, ensemble members are selected based on set criteria through video auditions. The group has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Next Generation Jazz Festival, the Jazz Education Network Convention, and at Berklee College of Music where they workshopped with Terri Lyne Carrington at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
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In our ongoing support of music education in schools, Monterey Jazz Festival is excited to announce the return of the MJF Regional All-Star Band and Vocal Ensemble, as well as the Regional All-Star Middle School Combo in a new partnership with York School in Monterey. In the 2023-24 school year, students will have the benefit of working with some of the county’s best jazz educators. All-Star Band and Vocal Ensemble students who satisfy a set of requirements established by MJF Education department will receive a Certificate of Excellence in Professional Musicianship.
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In our ongoing support of music education in schools, Monterey Jazz Festival is excited to announce the return of the MJF Regional All-Star Band and Vocal Ensemble, as well as the Regional All-Star Middle School Combo in a new partnership with York School in Monterey. In the 2023-24 school year, students will have the benefit of working with some of the county’s best jazz educators.
LEARN MORE!
In our ongoing support of music education in schools, Monterey Jazz Festival is excited to announce the return of the MJF Regional All-Star Band and Vocal Ensemble, as well as the Regional All-Star Middle School Combo in a new partnership with York School in Monterey. In the 2023-24 school year, students will have the benefit of working with some of the county’s best jazz educators.
LEARN MORE!
Bill Graham Memorial Foundation / North Coast Brewing Co. / Dennis Murphy School of Music / Enterprise Holdings Foundation / William H. Donner Foundation, Inc. / Monterey County Gives / Monterey Peninsula Volunteer Services / Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation / The National Endowment for the Arts / Sally Hughes Church Foundation / Rotary Club of Cannery Row / Wilhelm Family Foundation / California Arts Council / Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation / Arts Council of Monterey Country / Pebble Beach Company / Community Foundation for Monterey Country / Harden Foundation / Quest Foundation / Monterey Peninsula Foundation / The David & Lucile Packard Foundation / William and Flora Hewlett Foundation / Denny's
