40th National Youth Jazz Competition Winners Announced

40th NATIONAL YOUTH JAZZ COMPETITION WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The 40th National Youth Jazz Competition held at Baycourt Community and Arts Centre on Friday 14 April was pure jazz say the organisers.
“Ex-tropical Cyclone Cook caused a major disruption to travel plans for schools attending and resulted in some schools not being able to attend. It also closed the Baycourt venue early on Thursday so we made the decision to run the two day event comprising Big Band and Conbo competition on Friday. Programme schedules went out the window – it was pure jazz for a while but it is great to be able to say that all schools that were able to attend performed, and had a great time.”
In spite of the weather there was a good turnout with bands from as far north as Orewa, and as far south as Wellington attending – nine Big Bands performed in the Addison Theatre and 11 Combos performed in the Exhibition Space. The judges Dr Rodger Fox from New Zealand School of Music (NZSM), Lance Philip from NZSM, Dewayne Pate and Matt Harris from USA were impressed by the standard of performance from the young musicians.
Head Judge Dr. Rodger Fox felt the standard of combos and big bands was improving year to year, in large part due to the schools returning to the competition and building on their performances each time. This year after performing both combos and big bands received an onstage workshop with a judge receiving immediate feedback.
“The bands are very receptive to feedback and this is showing in the band performances. We gave four Gold Big Band Awards and five Gold Combo Awards. This says it all. It’s great to see students really working on improvisational playing,” says Dr Fox.
There were four gold Big Band awards presented to: Tauranga Boys’ College Big Band, Trident High Big Band, Orewa College Jazz Band, Pukekohe High School Stage Band with Pukekohe High School Stage Band winning the New Orleans Trophy for the Best Big Band and the Best of Festival Trophy for the most outstanding jazz band.
The competition Director Liam Ryan says the National Youth Jazz Competition fosters excellence in jazz performance offering the young competitors unique opportunities to improve their performances.
“We had more bands registered than we have ever had – it’s just such a shame that the weather didn’t cooperate. The bands that performed really brought their A game and set a new benchmark for excellence. A big thanks must go out to the school musical directors, young performers who played their hearts out, parents and support teams who came along and make it happen.
“We are very grateful to our sponsors for their support in hosting this event. It has been a wonderful day of youth jazz and it feels more like we are developing a music community than a competition,” concludes Liam Ryan.
The 40th National Youth Jazz Competition is sponsored by Tauranga City Council, TECT, ARA, The University of Auckland, SOUNZ, New Zealand School of Music: Victoria University of Wellington, Lion Foundation, COGS, Legacy Trust, Pub Charity.

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