Six up-and-coming jazz artists from the famed Berklee College of Music, along with drummer and scholarship award winner Ayinde Webb of Oakland, will present a special performance for 6th-8th grade students from these Title 1 schools in Contra Costa County.
The Berklee Monterey Sextet and Webb, winner of the prestigious Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee, located in Boston, are on their way to perform this Friday, Sept. 21 and Saturday, Sept 22 at the 55th annual Monterey Jazz Festival.
They are swinging through Walnut Creek Thursday to offer a special performance – a master class of sorts – to 289 students from Hillview and Rancho Medanos junior high schools in Pittsburg. The performers and their audience are guests of the Diablo Regional Arts Association’s Arts Access School Time Program.
What’s especially exciting about this concert is that the students will be able to watch a professional performance by musicians who are not that much older than themselves and who are rising stars in the world of jazz music. One member of the sextet, 20-year-old trumpeter Nick Frenay, has performed at Yoshi’s in Oakland. Another, 20-year-old jazz pianist/composer/arranger Matt Savage, has performed on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
Oakland’s Webb is the recipient of the full-tuition Jimmy Lyons scholarship, which is awarded to one student from the Western United States, in recognition of outstanding talent. Webb has been a senior drummer for the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s Frederick Douglass Youth Ensemble, and house drummer for Branice McKenzie’s “Not Just for Singer’s only” music salon. Here’s a story on Webb published today on the Oakland Post site:http://www.postnewsgroup.com/publishedcontent/2012/09/14/drummer-ayinde-webb-wins-music-scholarship/
Through its Arts Access program, DRAA annually brings more than 6000 K-12 students from underserved Contra Costa County schools to enjoy live performances at the Lesher Center. DRAA provides free tickets and transportation to students, as well as California standards-based study guides that teachers can use for classroom learning opportunities. Many of these students have never before seen a live performance. Arts Access serves Title 1 schools where the majority of students meet federal poverty guidelines.
Thursday’s performance with the Monterey Sextet and Ayinde Webb takes place at 11 a.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. It will be the first Arts Access School Time field trip for the 2012-13 year.
For more information about the Arts Access School Time program contact DRAA Executive Director Peggy White at 925-295-1470, pwhite@draa.org. Below (and attached) is a press release and photo from the Berklee College of Music about this weekend’s Berklee Monterey Sextext at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
