2015 Next Generation Jazz Festival Now Accepting Applications

Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader in jazz education since its inception in 1958, is pleased to announce the 11th Annual Next Generation Jazz Festival Presented by Monterey Jazz Festival, featuring the nation's most talented middle school, high school, conglomerate school, and college jazz musicians and vocalists. The Next Generation Jazz Festival will take place in historic downtown Monterey from March 27-29, 2015.

Begun in 1971 and evolving from Monterey Jazz Festival's California High School Jazz Competition, the Next Generation Jazz Festival is now in its 11th year in downtown Monterey. Applications are now being accepted from middle school big bands; high school big bands, combos, vocal jazz ensembles and composers; conglomerate high school big bands and combos; and college big bands, combos and vocal jazz ensembles through January 15, 2015. Application instructions are found at the Monterey Jazz Festival's website, www.montereyjazzfestival.org.

Next Generation Jazz Festival finalists are selected through recorded auditions reviewed and ranked by faculty from the Berklee College of Music. Finalists will include 12 big bands, six combos, and eight vocal jazz ensembles in the High School Division. Six college-level big bands and six college vocal jazz ensembles will also be selected, in addition to six high school conglomerate big bands, four high school conglomerate combos, four college combos, and six middle school big bands. In addition, specially-invited groups will also perform. In 2014, 80 groups from across the United States attended the Next Generation Jazz Festival.

The high school, conglomerate, and college divisions of the Next Generation Jazz Festival are open to superior rated big bands, combos, and vocal ensembles. The top groups will win cash awards and be invited to perform at the 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 18-20, 2015.

Auditions for Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra will also be held during the Next Generation Jazz Festival. As Monterey Jazz Festival's premier touring student ensemble, this group performs at jazz venues and festivals, both domestically and internationally, and will be a featured Sunday Arena performance at the 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival.

The Next Generation Jazz Festival Presented by Monterey Jazz Festival also includes a big band composition competition, open to high school composers. Judged by college faculty from leading music schools across the country, the winning composer will receive the Gerald Wilson Award and a cash prize, with the winning composition to be performed by the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra on the final day of the 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival on Sunday, September 20, 2015, on the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the Arena.

All Next Generation Jazz Festival events and activities, from Friday night's Kick-Off Concert, featuring the Next Generation Jazz Festival Adjudicators, through Saturday and Sunday's High School Jazz Competition, are free of charge and open to the public. The Festival will also conduct clinics, workshops, jam sessions, and auditions in the heart of historic Monterey, with music to be performed at the Monterey Conference Center, as well as on auxiliary stages at the host Portola Hotel, Turn 12 Bar & Grill, and the Museum of Monterey.

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