Photo courtesy of Kelsea Schafer Photos
The 2023-24 Hoover High School First Edition Jazz Band
Hoover High School’s First Edition Jazz Band is in Chicago this week to perform at The Midwest Clinic, which is billed as the largest instrumental music education conference in the world.
Bands must audition to be chosen to perform at the conference, and this is the third time the First Edition Jazz Band has been selected. The first two times were in 2012 and 2018, said Sallie Vines White, the director of the jazz band. Bands must wait at least five years to audition again, she said.
The conference is attended each year by more than 18,000 people and this year is drawing people from all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
Only five bands from Alabama have ever been chosen to perform there in the 77 years of the conference, White said.
Twenty-three members of the First Edition Jazz Band made the trip this year, and the band is scheduled to give a concert on Friday, Dec. 22. Marcus Printup, a trumpeter with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, is scheduled to be the guest artist for the performance.
They will perform 10 songs in a concert that lasts about an hour, White said. In addition to White, other conductors will include Hoover High lead band director Ryan Fitchpatrick and assistant directors Matthew Cicero and Jeff Fondren.
They’ve already had a rehearsal in Chicago, and “they’re sounding great,” White said. “It’s going to be exciting.”
Additionally, the First Edition Jazz Band on Thursday had the opportunity to be the demonstration band for a clinic put on by Dean Sorenson, a composer, arranger and trombonist who serves as an associate professor and director of jazz studies at the University of Minnesota.
On Wednesday night, the Hoover students had a chance to hear The President’s Own United States Marine Band, the top band of the Marine Corps, and on Thursday night, they were planning to hear the Navy Commodores perform.
While the students are in Chicago, they’re also going to visit the Exchequer Restaurant & Pub to partake of some Chicago-style pizza, White said. The band was pleased to have Hoover High Principal Jennifer Hogan make the trip to be with them, she said.
After performing Friday afternoon, the band will board a bus and should be home by about 3 a.m. Saturday, she said.
Photo courtesy of Sallie Vines White
The Hoover High School First Edition Jazz Band is in Chicago to perform at the 77th edition of The Midwest Clinic, billed as the largest instrumental music education conference in the world.
