The Universal Guild for Jazz and Progressive Music has announced an expanded scope of Solvang Jazz Festival educational programs for students in Santa Barbara County.

This year, the Solvang Jazz Festival presents its third annual Competition for Student Musicians, an educational concert and master classes for student musicians with UCLA professor Dr. Bobby Rodriguez. New this year will be a free afternoon concert on Sept. 26 featuring student jazz bands from schools throughout Santa Barbara County and the first-place winners from the 2007 to 2009 UGJPM Student Musician Competitions.

To kick off the festival’s educational programs this summer, students ages 10 to 19 participated in the Competition for Student Musicians. Students submitted three- to five-minute audition pieces and were judged on their musicianship, excellence, talent and creativity. The five winners will receive financial assistance to help further their musical education and will be acknowledged during the educational concert before the festival.

The winners (with age, school, hometown and instrument played) are:

» First place: Alex Nishi, 17, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, Santa Ynez, guitar

» Second place: Corey Parmenter, 14, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, Solvang, drums

» Third place: Nathan Grotenhuis, 12, home school, Goleta, piano

» Honorable mention: Noah Weitz, 13, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, Buellton, piano

» Honorable Mention: Sofia Caciola, 9, Los Olivos Elementary School, Ballard, flute

“The Solvang Jazz Festival is providing invaluable opportunities for students, classroom teachers and the community to learn about and experience the complexity and power of jazz music in live performance,” said Linda Burrows, Solvang School Education Foundation board Mmember and Solvang Jazz Festival education outreach coordinator. “As state and federal budgets for interdisciplinary arts education are being cut, our students are hungry for the chance to learn about the great works of Western civilization — and the art of jazz music stands as a uniquely American masterpiece. The UGJPM Competition for Student Musicians sets a standard for musical excellence and recognizes and provides financial assistance to further the musical development of the winning students.”

Also new to the festival this year is New Voices, a concert from noon to 3 p.m. Sept. 26 in the Solvang Festival Theater. Four student jazz bands will perform, including the award-winning Dos Pueblos Jazz Combo from Santa Barbara, the award-winning Cabrillo High School Jazz Band from Lompoc, The Dunn School Jazz Band from the Santa Ynez Valley and The Santa Ynez Valley Jazz Band from the Santa Ynez Valley. Performing as soloists will be Alex Nishi, first-place winner of the 2009 UGJPM Student Competition, Jae Eun Chang, first-place winner of the 2008 UGJPM Student Competition, and Noah Weitz, first-place winner of the 2007 UGJPM Student Competition.

Admission to the New Voices concert is free, but donations to the Universal Guild for Jazz and Progressive Music are welcome.

Returning for the third year is the dynamic Jazz Concert for Valley Students, performed by the Bobby Rodriguez Ensemble. The free educational concert is hosted by Solvang School for nearly 1,000 valley students in grades 3 through 12 and their teachers, from schools throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. Rodriguez is a trumpet player, band leader and director of LatinJazz ensembles and jazz trumpet at UCLA, UC Irvine and the LatinJazz Ensemble at Pasadena City College. He is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology at UCLA.

After the concert,Rodriguez and guest musicians will lead master classes for student musicians in grades 7 through 12. The classes will cover trumpet, percussion, keyboards, reeds, brass and bass. 

“We are able to bring the thrill and wonder of jazz to these incredible students because we have received an outpouring of support from this wonderful community, the guest musicians who are lending their knowledge and skills, and from our event sponsors,” said Stix Hooper, president of the Universal Guild for Jazz and Progressive Music. “It truly does take a village to raise a child — and especially to teach that child about the thrill of jazz.”

— Marjorie Wass is a publicist.