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Time:

Thursday
December, 16, 2021
12:45 PM - 01:45 PM

Location:

W 196

Category

High School Jazz Ensemble

Conductor

Conductor Thumb
Andy Sturgeon

Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

The Mundelein High School Jazz Ensemble from Mundelein, IL is one of two curricular jazz bands that are audition-based and open to all 9th through 12th grade students. The band program at Mundelein High School enrolls over 225 students in four concert bands. Throughout the school year the band performs over a dozen times in a variety of venues including concerts at the school, jazz festivals in the Midwest and jazz venues around the Chicagoland area including Fitzgerald’s Nightclub in Berwyn, Nellies in Palatine, and The Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Within the past several years the Mundelein High School Jazz Ensemble has been named Honor Band at the Purdue Jazz Festival, Eau Claire Jazz Festival, and has been selected to perform two times at the Illinois Music Education Conference (2016, 2020). All Mundelein High School Jazz Ensemble students are expected to be familiar with performing in a variety of jazz styles as the band’s repertoire is wide ranging from traditional to contemporary jazz. As part of the curriculum, students are expected to engage in a student-directed project that takes a deep-dive into areas of jazz, musicianship, improvisation, or technique to further their musical development. Some recent examples of “jazz projects” include transcribing and performing iconic solos, transcribing entire big band charts, composing original melodies, creating contrafacts, and arranging melodies into both combo and big band settings.

Mundelein High School Jazz Ensemble

Conductor's Bio

Andy Sturgeon is in his fifteenth year as a music teacher and ninth year at Mundelein High School. At Mundelein High School he teaches the Honors Symphonic Winds and Freshmen Concert Band as well as the Honors Jazz Ensemble and Beginning Guitar classes. He also directs the Noise Show Choir combo and co-directs the Marching Mustangs and the Mundelein High School Pep Band. Before coming to Mundelein High School, Mr. Sturgeon taught band in Evergreen Park, IL and worked with the Wheeling High School and John Hersey High School band programs in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Concordia University. Mr. Sturgeon is an active trombone player and played with the Northshore Concert Band for nine years.

Additional Directors

Jerry Shelato

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