State Youth Jazz Orchestra Brandenburg

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The Brandenburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra (LaJJazzO) was founded in 1994. The jazz trombonist and big band leader Jiggs Whigham has been the artistic director of LaJJazzO since 2008 and has made the history of big band music a focus of promoting young, talented jazz musicians in Brandenburg . In the up-and-coming band LaJJazzO Junior , founded in 2012, younger students between the ages of 13 and 18 who are interested in jazz have the opportunity to qualify for admission to LaJJazzO.

profile

The Brandenburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra (LaJJazzO) was founded in 1994. Since then, the ensemble has been accompanied in rehearsal phases and concerts by high- profile jazz musicians and band leaders such as Konrad Körner , Rolf von Nordenskjöld , Ralf Schrabbe and, since 2008, Jiggs Whigham. In November 2010, the big band won a first prize with the highest number of points at the 4th national competition for selected orchestras in Bamberg. For the 25th anniversary in 2019, LaJJazzO released its second CD "25 Years" with a musical cross-section of 80 years of big band music. The young jazz musicians worked with members of the BBC Big Band from London and with musicians such as Till Brönner and Joe Gallardo .

Since 2012, students between the ages of 13 and 18 have had the opportunity to intensively deal with swing and jazz at LaJJazzO Junior . In regular work phases, they develop a varied program of big band literature. A special highlight of the LaJJazzO Junior are workshops in music schools , where students and big bands from the music schools have the opportunity to make music together with the regional ensemble. In November 2018, the LaJJazzO Junior, under the direction of Martin Gerwig, won first place at the 6th national competition for selected orchestras in Trossingen in the “Big Band” category. The saxophonist Finn Wiesner has been leading the rehearsal phases and concerts of the up-and-coming big band since 2019 .

LaJJazzO is sponsored by the Brandenburg Association of Music and Art Schools , the State Youth Jazz Orchestra is funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, and rbbKultur accompanies the orchestra as a media partner.

history

The State Youth Jazz Orchestra was founded on February 19, 1994 by the Jazzfront Berlin & Brandenburg Association on behalf of the Brandenburg State Music Council . The artistic director Konrad Körner introduced the young musicians, who had previously mainly played in wind bands, to swing music and big band arrangements for the first time . The first working phase took place in the Rheinsberg Music Academy with an official founding concert in the St. Laurentius Church. A year later, the state youth jazz orchestra switched to its new sponsor, the Brandenburg New Music Association . In 2004 there was another change of sponsor, this time to the State Association of Music Schools (today Association of Music and Art Schools Brandenburg). From 1997 to 2009, under the artistic direction of Rolf von Nordenskjöld and Ralf Schrabbe, LaJJazzO mainly played original compositions tailored to the respective cast. In 2009 the Berlin Jazz Orchestra sponsored the Brandenburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra .

Since it was founded in 1994, LaJJazzO has mainly given concerts in the state of Brandenburg and Berlin . The big band has been a guest at various jazz festivals such as the Dixieland Festival in Wittenberge (2004), the Potsdam Jazz Festival (2004, 2006), the Fürstenwalder Jazz Days (2014), the Havelländische Musikfestspiele (2017) and at Jazz in the Ministergärten in Berlin . The LaJJazzO also took part in the Big Band Summit at the Landesmusikakademie Hessen several times . In addition, LaJJazzO performed regularly as part of the festival of the music and art schools Brandenburg SOUND CITY (formerly Landesmusikschultage), as well as as part of the benefit concert series Music Schools Open Churches and at the final of the competition enviaM - musik aus kommunen , and organized joint concerts the Junge Philharmonie Brandenburg and the Young Voices Brandenburg . Concert tours took the big band to Mexico in 2006 and the USA in 2014.

Under the direction of Jiggs Whigham, LaJJazzO has been devoting itself to classic big band music in the style of Count Basie and Stan Kenton since 2008 . The first joint concert "A New Beginning" with Jiggs Whigham took place in 2008 in Potsdam . In 2010, the LaJJazzO and the Berlin Youth Jazz Orchestra (BJJO) took part in the “Big Band Explosion” in the broadcasting hall of the RBB in Berlin. In the same year, the LaJJazzO won first prize at the 4th national competition for selected orchestras in Bamberg in the “Big Band” category. In 2011 LaJJazzO took part in the Imatra Big Band Camp in Finland and released its first CD "Ellington and More". In 2012 the LaJJazzO Junior was founded as a young big band under the direction of Martin Gerwig.

In 2014 a live recording of the concert “20 years of LaJJazzO - twenty years of finest big band music” was made in the broadcasting hall of the RBB Berlin. In 2018 the LaJJazzO performed Duke Ellington's “Second Sacred Concert” with the Young Voices Brandenburg. In the same year, the LaJJazzO Junior won 1st place in the 6th national competition for selected orchestras in Trossingen in the “Big Band” category.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the LaJJazzO made a guest appearance in 2019 with the program "Best of LaJJazzO - 25 Years of the Brandenburg State Youth Jazz Orchestra" in Frankfurt (Oder) , Senftenberg and Berlin and presented the anniversary CD "25 Years" - with live recordings Concerts in Kleinmachnow , Ludwigsfelde , Schwedt / Oder and Berlin - as part of a record release concert in Potsdam.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ National Competition Selection Orchestra - BMCO. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  2. ^ Association of Music and Art Schools Brandenburg eV Accessed on April 20, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ Brandenburg has the best young jazz musicians. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Berlin Jazz Orchestra | Home. Retrieved April 20, 2020 (German).
  5. ^ Youth ensembles / Music Information Center (MIZ). Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  6. ^ Fürstenwalder Jazztage History - Kulturverein Fürstenwalde eV Accessed on April 20, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ Big Band Summit. Retrieved April 20, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ Music schools open churches. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  9. ↑ enviaM-envia Mitteldeutsche Energie AG: enviaM and the enviaM group MUSIK AUS KOMMUNEN - a funding project by enviaM and MITGAS from the culture segment. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Welcome and farewell | Edition: 2/18 | nmz - new music newspaper. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Stephanie Lubasch: Interview: “They all want to play”. August 30, 2018, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Gorholt honors the state youth jazz orchestra as "Brandenburg's musical figurehead". Retrieved April 20, 2020 .