Performer Details
Performer Bio Synopsis
Lavilla School of the Arts opened in 2000 as a dedicated arts magnet Middle School encompassing nine arts areas with participation for each of the 1,050 students.
The Lavilla Bands are one of a handful of art areas transplanted from the previous host school, Landon Middle School, with the faculty intact. As such, the Lavilla Bands have benefited from nearly 40 years of instructional continuity.
Lavilla is an urban school, located in an historic area for the arts, which supports a diverse population of students with high academic and artistic standards. Students are admitted through a lottery system with over 90% of our band students having no previous band experience prior to enrollment.
The Lavilla Bands center on three concert bands with additional class options available in 7th and 8th grade. The overriding goal is to produce lifelong music consumers who have developed independent musical skills and high character qualities.
Classes include the following:
• Beginning band (divided into three groups – woodwinds, brass, percussion)
• Intermediate band
• Advanced band
• Percussion ensemble
• Two Jazz bands – Ashley Street and Davis Street Bands
• Chamber ensemble class
• Applied music theory – presented in a peer mentoring model
The Lavilla Band maintains a busy performance schedule of 25-35 performances each year, which include a variety of traditional “in school” performances as well as masterclass, community, and school district events.
The performance history of the Lavilla School of the Arts Jazz Bands (and also Landon Middle School) includes:
• The National Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Kansas City, Missouri – 1982
• The Florida Music Educators Association Conference – 1983
• The National Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Anaheim, California – 1985
• The Montreux International Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland –1988, 1993, 1997
• The Midwest Clinic: International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, Illinois (Landon Middle School) 1989, 1997 – (Lavilla School of the Arts) 2019
• North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands – 1993, 1997
• Jazz Sous le Pommier Jazz Festival in Coutance, France – 1994
• Featured role in the award winning film “Chops”, by Bruce Broder - 2008
• Featured performers – Savannah Music Festival “Swing Central” Savannah, Georgia – 2010
• Featured performers – Palm Court Jazz Club, New Orleans, LA. – 2014
• University of Central Florida Jazz Festival Invitational – 2014
• Lavilla (and Landon) Jazz Bands have consistently earned superior ratings at Florida Bandmaster Association assessments for our complete history.
LaVilla School of the Arts Ashley Street Jazz Band
Conductor's Bio
Mr. Banks attended Georgia State University as a Trombone performance major with an early interest in music education and performance. After extensive study with members of the Atlanta Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and numerous regional orchestra appointments, Mr. Banks moved to New York and attended The Juilliard School as a Gluck fellowship recipient where he earned a Performance Certificate in Bass Trombone (91’) under the tutelage of Mr. Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic.
In New York, Mr. Banks studied with more than a dozen Artists from The New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Empire Brass Quintet, and American Brass Quintet. Performances include recordings and live engagements with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, St. Luke’s Orchestra, American Brass Quintet, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Brooklyn Symphony, to name a few. As a chamber musician, Mr. Banks was a member of the Equali Trombone Quartet and the Avalon Brass Quintet that won the 1990 New York Brass Conference Chamber Music Competition. His professional career as a bass trombonist includes extended engagements with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Burning River Brass Ensemble.
Mr. Banks won an appointment with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, where he performed and recorded with the CSO Brass Quintet, and gave featured solo performances as part of the renowned Spoleto Music Festival.
From 1994 to 2002 Mr. Banks held the Bass Trombone chair with the Jacksonville Symphony.
Mr. Banks accepted a full time position at LaVilla School of the Arts, in Jacksonville, Florida in 2004. At LaVilla, Mr. Banks is fortunate to be one of three instrumental music faculty, and works collaboratively with Dr. Ann Valle' and Mr. Thomas Flynn in every aspect of the program with specific responsibility for the Jazz, Chamber music, and Percussion programs.
Mr. Banks is an active member of JEN, FBA, NafMe, FMEA. Mr. Banks served as the Florida All-State Middle School Jazz Band coordinator from 2013-2016, and in numerous roles for FBA District 17.
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