Next Generation Jazz Orchestra Will Perform for Hundreds
of Monterey County Public School Music Students
Pianist Justin Salisbury Named 17th Jimmy Lyons Scholar
at Berklee College of Music
September 17, 2013; Monterey, CA; Monterey Jazz Festival kicks off the weekend’s activities this Thursday with another edition of the “Concert for Kids” at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, with Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Jazz Orchestra performing a free 45-minute set for students enrolled in Monterey County public schools. The concert will start at 11:15 a.m. on Thursday, September 19 at the Garden Stage at the Monterey Fairgrounds.
Major support for the 2013 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra comes from the Surdna Foundation.
The pre-Festival “Concert for Kids” has been a tradition at the Monterey Jazz Festival for over 20 years, inviting students from Monterey County middle and high schools to the free event every year, with an estimated 500 students attending annually. The concert is part of an outreach effort by Monterey Jazz Festival to bring jazz music, for free, to the students of Monterey County.
Created as a part of Monterey Jazz Festival’s continuing commitment to jazz education, members of the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra were selected through an application and audition process during the Next Generation Jazz Festival each spring.
Twenty high school musicians from 10 states comprise the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, including six students from California, five from New Jersey, two from Texas; and one each from Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, New York, and Oregon.
Six members of the Orchestra are returning, and include flutist Elena Pinderhughes (Berkeley High School, Berkeley, Calif.); saxophonist Julian Lee (Montclair High School, Montclair, N.J.); trombonists Coleman Hughes (Newark Academy, Livingston, N.J.) and Blake Manternach (West High School, Iowa City, Iowa); drummer Cameron MacIntosh (Columbia High School, Maplewood, N.J.) and bassist Daryl Johns (Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, N.J.) who is the band’s only three-year member.
The Orchestra also performs at the 56th Monterey Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 22, on the Jimmy Lyons Stage. The 2013 Artist-In-Residence, Joe Lovano, will appear with the band.
In the past, the band has been under the leadership of Ladd McIntosh, Don Schamber, Benny Golson, Bill Berry, and many more. Now under the tutelage of Paul Contos, the renowned saxophonist and flutist who serves as the director of the Orchestra, the ensemble is dedicated to the study and performance of the most challenging big band literature available. Former members include pianist Patrice Rushen and Benny Green, bassist Larry Grenadier, drummer Chad Wackerman, trumpeters Ambrose Akinmusire and Dominick Farinacci; saxophonists Eric Marienthal, Donny McCaslin, Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, and Dave Koz; trombonist Andy Martin; and big band leader Gordon Goodwin.
In related news, Berklee College of Music and Monterey Jazz Festival announce that pianist Justin Salisbury of Clatskanie, Ore., has been named the 17th recipient of the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship at Berklee, a major music education prize. The full-tuition scholarship is named in honor of the festival’s late founder, James L. (Jimmy) Lyons, who began the Festival 56 years ago with jazz education at its core.
The Lyons Scholarship is awarded each year to one music student from the western United States, in recognition of their outstanding talent. Because it is a full-tuition, renewable award, satisfactory academic and musical progress in each successive year will allow each Lyons Scholar to attend Berklee through graduation, entirely tuition-free.
Lyons Scholar recipient Justin Salisbury, 18, hails from the small town of Clatskanie, Ore. in the lower Columbia River region, and is a graduate of Clatskanie High School. He began piano lessons in kindergarten, and has studied extensively with jazz artists Clay Giberson, and Alan Jones. This year Justin had the privilege of playing under the direction of NEA Jazz Master Gerald Wilson in the Portland Youth Jazz All-Stars. He has attended the Mel Brown Jazz Camp in Monmouth, Ore. and the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program, to which he received a full tuition scholarship. He also was part of Lower Columbia College’s “Running Start” program, attending college classes there in Longview, Wash., during his junior and senior years of high school.
Justin has become an in-demand musician in the Pacific Northwest who has worked with artists spanning multiple genres, including Seattle grunge legend Steve Fisk, free jazz trumpeter Nate Wooley, and jazz pianist George Colligan. He also makes experimental electronic music on the side and tours with a pop rock band called SEACATS. Justin began his studies at Berklee this fall.
Salisbury is the third Oregonian, and just the third pianist, to receive the Lyons Scholarship, joining Portlander Grant Richards (Edmar Colón Quartet) and Milton Fletcher (Christian Scott Quintet).
Carsbia Anderson, Vice President of Monterey Jazz Festival’s Board of Directors and chair of the Festival’s Education Committee, and Berklee Provost Dr. Lawrence Simpson will make the Lyons presentation to Justin Salisbury at the Festival on Sunday, September 22, at 2:10 pm, on the Jimmy Lyons Stage.
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For more information, high-resolution pictures and interview opportunities please contact:
Timothy Orr
Marketing Associate
Monterey Jazz Festival
MJF Phone: 831.373.3366
[email protected]
www.montereyjazzfestival.org
or
Rob Hayes
Asst. VP for Public Information
Berklee College of Music
617.747.2566 (office) or 617.331.4424 (cell)
[email protected]
www.berklee.edu