Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Festival
2025 ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL
JAZZ FESTIVAL, in partnership with JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2025 8AM – 4PM
Festival Schedule (subject to change):
8:00 AM: Arrival & Set Up
8:30 AM - 12:15 PM: Performances and Clinics
12:15 PM - 1:00 PM: Lunch (Provided)
Students: Jam Session
Band Directors: Lunch & Learn
1:00 PM - 2:15 PM: Sectional Master Classes
2:15 PM - 3:30 PM: Performances and Clinics
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM: Awards & Dismissal
NOTE: Participants are expected to stay for the entire festival day.
REGISTRATION AND REQUIREMENTS
Participating schools are required to join Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2024-2025 Essentially Ellington Program. By joining the free program, directors will receive original big band transcriptions from JALC. New members can join the program online by visiting jazz.org/ee and completing an online membership form. For questions about the Essentially Ellington program contact Oliver Beardsley, JALC Manager of Student and Family Programs at 212-258-9861 or ee@jazz.org.
Performing Jazz Band Requirements:
High School Jazz Bands will be required to perform 2-3 selections in a 20 minute window (Including set-up, tuning, and exit from the stage) at the festival as follows:
- One score must be a swing tune.
- One score must be a ballad.
- One score to be a director’s choice from any genre.
- One of these 2-3 selections, whether swing, ballad, Latin, etc., must be from either the current repertoire or previous titles listed in the JALC Essentially Ellington library.
- All eligible charts from the Essentially Ellington library are published by Warner Bros. Publications, Alfred Publishing Co. or E Jazz Lines and prominently feature an Essentially Ellington logo on the cover of the conductor’s score. Remember directors, that in addition to the charts received through membership with the 2024-25 Essentially Ellington program, you may also elect to perform any of the previously published charts.
For a complete list of all titles in the Essentially Ellington library, visit jazz.org/ee and select “Library” from within the red “Resources” tab on the right.
Procedures for Bands:
Each band will receive 20 minutes total for their performance. This includes set-up, tuning, and exit from the stage. A warm-up room will be available to each band 20 minutes prior to their scheduled performance time. Adjudicators will provide a critique of your performance and provide numerical ratings on a festival adjudication sheet. Directors are not required to provide adjudicators with music scores. We prefer our judges to listen and observe rather than be focused too much on viewing and studying a printed music score.
Band directors must complete the following google form by January 3, 2025:
Post-performance Clinic
Each jazz band will receive a 20-minute clinic with one of our Essentially Ellington clinicians.
Clinicians and Adjudicators will include professional musicians from Jazz at Lincoln Center as well as faculty from the department of music at LIU Post.
Adjudicators Bios- COMING SOON
There is a registration fee of $250 per ensemble, which includes lunch. Payments are accepted via BOCES Arts in Education, by check, credit card or purchase order.
If paying by check, please make checks payable to “Long Island University” and mail to:
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548-1300
Attn: Megan Montemurro
Tilles Center Jazz Programming is made possible, in part, by Sandy and Eric Krasnoff.