Area band students were treated to two days of personal instruction from some of the best musicians in the country last week in Didsbury, Nov. 20-21 at the third annual Olds Rotary Jazz Fest.
The event, which is partially sponsored by the Olds and Didsbury-Carstairs Rotary clubs had 16 bands from across Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) partaking in clinics instructed by members of the band Mocking Shadows as well as Johnny Summers, director of the Calgary Jazz Ochestra.
Kirk Wassmer, music director for Didsbury High School, said about 50 per cent of students at DHS are in one of the band programs, and to have an event of this magnitude helps students experience learning in a different way.
“The clinicians that were working with the kids down at the church were also playing in the Ray Charles Tribute Orchestra on Tuesday night,” said Wassmer.
“So it was a really neat experience for them to see those guys playing in that group when they had just been working with them earlier in the day.”
That helps bring the whole experience full circle for the students, he added.
“That was valuable, and Johnny Summers is just amazing with the kids.”
The format for the workshops included students playing in their band for 45 minutes with Summers guiding them and giving them tips, he said.
“And for the other 45 minutes, they were in like-instrument sections,” he noted.
“The saxes were working with the pro sax player, trumpets with the pro trumpet player, so it was very focused and directed toward (the students') instruments.”
This is the 10th year that CESD has been putting on the workshop part of the event, and it's the third year that the workshops have been complemented by evening concerts in Olds, he added.
“When I first got to CESD, the music teachers, we had always planned events…but we didn't have anything going for the jazz program,” said Wassmer.
“I love jazz music, and thought it would be valuable to have an event, something directly related to jazz music.”
The Olds Rotary Club was approached by Wassmer three years ago when the concert series was added to the workshops, and Wassmer said they were on board immediately.
Wayne McCune, a member of the Olds club who volunteered for both the workshops and concerts said that this is just another example of the Rotary Club helping kids.
“They're not poor kids, but they're gifted, and gifted kids need help too,” said McCune.
He also spoke very highly of the Didsbury High School band program, which he said is “absolutely unparalleled by any other program.
“Didsbury seniors are at the level of any college or university band,” he added.
“In most schools, the football players are the heroes. Here, the band students are the heroes,” he said.
He talked briefly about Niko Tsiras, a 2012 graduate who was a top saxophone player in the DHS band last year and is now considered a top player at Mount Royal University.
