Ballard High jazz band to play in prestigious competition on Broadway

One of only 15 schools to make the cut, Ballard High School’s jazz band has been selected to compete in the Essentially Ellington Festival at Lincoln Center on Broadway in New York City.

The finalists were selected from a pool of over 109 high school bands that submitted a recording to the judges. The BHS band will receive an in-school workshop “led by a professional musician” before heading to NYC on May 10-12 to perform before Wynton Marsalis and a panel of judges.

But that’s not all the BHS jazz band is doing — and they need your help.

On March 30th, they’ll be performing at the 23rd Annual Hot Java Cool Jazz event at the Paramount. It’s a fundraiser for the Ballard High music program, and the Starbucks at the corner of 22nd and Market starts selling tickets tomorrow (Friday).

Then in April, the band is headed to the Monterey “Next Generation” Jazz Festival.

“To participate in both of these festivals (in NYC and Monterey) is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, but we can’t do it without your help!” said Evan Fekete, a sophomore who plays trumpet in the band.

Besides the tickets at the Central Ballard Starbucks, the band is working on other fundraising efforts to come.