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NCJF Jazz Education

This year, we added another day of jazz education! This was made possible by a grant from the Bastian Family Foundation. We were able to bring jazz education to Brunswick County Schools on Thursday, February 6, 2025. NCJF musicians who performed jazz music workshops/concerts were Chuck Redd-percussion/leader, Rossano Sportiello-piano, Herman Burney-bass, Ken Peplowski-reeds, Jonathan Russell-violin, Nate Najar-guitar, and Emily Asher-trombone/vocalist.
The musicians traveled to West Brunswick High school in Shallotte, NC and North Brunswick High school in Leland, NC. Chuck Redd and his band spoke about Dizzy Gilespie and how important he was in jazz history. He talked about improvisation in jazz music and did a show-and-tell about how the instruments “talk” with each other.
Concurrently, vocalist Emily Asher demonstrated vocal improvisation using the song Blue Skies as an example, and some students got the opportunity to sing in front of the class and improvise the song by holding notes longer, or shorter, and so on, with direction from Emily Asher.
On Friday, February 7, 2025, the NCJF musicians visited a total of 5 schools. The first group to visit New Hanover County schools included Chuck Redd-bandleader/percussion, Jenn Hodge-bass, Bill Easley-reeds, Lucy Yeghiazaryan-vocalist, Shaye Cohn-trumpet, Jonathan Russell-violin, and Charlie Halloran-trombone.
They visited Castle Hayne Elementary, Murrayville Elementary, and Williston Middle School. The musicians discussed the music of Dizzy Gillespie and his contributions to jazz. They also talked about individual instruments in jazz music and their role in the band.
The second group of musicians were Herman Burney-bandleader-upright bass, Kevin Bales-piano, Ken Peplowski-reeds, Nate Najar-guitar, Chris Gelb-drums, and Emily Asher-trombone. They visited Trask Middle School, Sunset Park Elementary School, and joined the first group of musicians at Williston Middle School.
During the performance, students showed their engagement with the music by clapping and participated in some call-and-response examples where one musician offers a phrase, or call, and a second player answers.
Collectively, the NCJF education program reached about 1,100 students.

On Friday afternoon, Jonathan Russell gave a violin masterclass at the Brooklyn Arts Music Academy. Jonathan encouraged each student to perform a solo piece on their violin. The students played an A-flat blues scale along with Jonathan and enjoyed being able to improvise on the violin. One student said it was “so cool” to do a solo.

El Jaye Johnson/bandleader – guitar/trumpet; Darryl Murrill – saxophone; Sherome Clay – piano/keys; Kevin Lawrence – bass guitar; and Daniel Murrill – drums perform at Dreams of Wilmington.

The North Carolina Jazz Festival celebrated Jazz Appreciation Month by sponsoring a local band performing jazz music for Dreams of Wilmington. Dreams is an after-school program that provides students with free access to art, dance, music and theater classes.

El Jaye and Friends performed jazz for over 55 students. El Jaye explained that his band begins with a main melody. The individual musicians have a solo role in the band and took turns improvising to show what they can do with their instruments. El Jaye said jazz is infused with almost all types of music from gospel to pop.

Several of our NCJF Jazz musicians who were performing for this year’s (2024) festival shared their talents with local public schools as part of our Jazz Education program. This year they included Castle Hayne Elementary School, Sunset Park Elementary School, Annie H. Snipes Academy of Arts & Design Elementary School, D. C. Virgo Preparatory Academy for middle grades, Williston Middle School and New Hanover High School. They collectively performed live jazz for over 1,000 students! Each musician introduced their instrument and showcased their role in jazz. The musicians demonstrated the “Call and Response” aspect of jazz music as well as the style of jazz singing call “scatting”.

In addition to our public school programs, we also conduct master classes: Ken Peplowski led a reeds master class at our local university, UNC Wilmington, and Jonathan Russell led a violin master class at the Varnam Strings violin studio in downtown Wilmington.We are so thankful for donations from our patrons and supporters of our Jazz Education programs. We foster and preserve the art of Jazz through funding and grants. A special thank you to the Kurt W. Engelbert III Memorial Fund as well as grantors, NC Arts Council and the Landfall Foundation, for making the Jazz Education programs possible.

On Friday, February 3rd, 2023, during the day, the NC Jazz Festival musicians went to local public schools to perform live jazz to students!Adrian Cunningham-reeds/ lead musician along with Shaye Cohn-trumpet, Ehud Asherie-piano, Emily Asher-trombone, Nate Najar-guitar, Herman Burney-bass, and Kevin Dorn-drums went to DC Virgo! They played for the elementary and secondary grade students. Adrian and the musicians all played their instruments and talked about their instruments! At the end of the concert, some of the music students joined the musicians on stage to play the vibes!

Dion Tucker-trombone/lead musician along with Jonathan Russell-violin, Bill Easley-reeds, Neal Miner-bass, RossanoSportiello-piano, and Chuck Redd-drums performed for Snipes Academy of Arts & Design elementary school! The auditorium was filled with over 400 eager students excited to hear the musicians play jazz music! Dion explained what some of the instruments do in a jazz band and showcased the sounds made by the instruments! They played Duke Ellington tunes and some of the students were familiar with his music! Dion had a Q & A at the end and many students were eager to participate and ask questions!!!
Lucy Yeghiazarryan-vocalist along with Rossano Sportiello-piano went to do a vocal masterclass with the choral students at Hoggard High school. Lucy and Rossano demonstrated the importance of having a good piano player or band and showed examples of the interchange. The highlight was when all the choral students participated in singing “Your Red Wagon” and Lucy explained the “trading” with the pianist while “scatting” the melody and the students repeated her commands!

Photo by Mark Robbins
Jonathan Russell had a violin masterclass at the Ronald Sachs Violin Studio for middle school and one for high school students! There were 28 students in attendance at the Ronald Sachs Violin Studio here in Wilmington, NC. Jonathan went over some Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong songs! He also worked on techniques and improvisation with the students. Many of these students also attended the Friday night concert to see Jonathan play with the other musicians at the Ballast Hotel in Wilmington, NC

Also at 4pm, we had senior high students from the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra to do a collective masterclass with Ehud Asherie-piano, Dion Tucker-trombone, Bruce Harris-trumpet, Chuck Redd-drums, Herman Burney-bass, and Adrian Cunningham-reeds! The music students wanted to see how a jazz band collaborates and had fun interacting with the musicians!Friday night was a great testament for the NC Jazz Festival Education program as we strive to reach a younger audience who appreciate jazz music! We had a record number of young students attending the Friday night concert!!! We also had band students from Midway High School (about an hour and half away) to attend!

APRIL is Jazz Appreciation month!

This year the North Carolina Jazz Festival sponsored a local jazz band to perform at Dreams of Wilmington-an after school program.Darryl Murrill-bandleader-reeds player ,along with Jarred Cline-guitar, Anthony Hayes-keyboard, Carlo Rouse-bass, and student musician Daniel Felder-percussion played jazz music for about 25-30 Dreams students! Darryll talked about the history of jazz in America and styles of jazz. Many of the students were energized by the jazzy sounds and danced while the band performed. The students asked many questions about the instruments the musicians were playing!!! This event was inspiring for teachers and students alike!!!

The NC Jazz Festival will continue to bring Jazz education programs to our local schools!

On Friday, February 3rd, 2023, during the day, the NC Jazz Festival musicians went to local public schools to perform live jazz to students!Adrian Cunningham-reeds/ lead musician along with Shaye Cohn-trumpet, Ehud Asherie-piano, Emily Asher-trombone, Nate Najar-guitar, Herman Burney-bass, and Kevin Dorn-drums went to DC Virgo! They played for the elementary and secondary grade students. Adrian and the musicians all played their instruments and talked about their instruments! At the end of the concert, some of the music students joined the musicians on stage to play the vibes!

Photos by Mark Robbins

Dion Tucker-trombone/lead musician along with Jonathan Russell-violin, Bill Easley-reeds, Neal Miner-bass, RossanoSportiello-piano, and Chuck Redd-drums performed for Snipes Academy of Arts & Design elementary school! The auditorium was filled with over 400 eager students excited to hear the musicians play jazz music! Dion explained what some of the instruments do in a jazz band and showcased the sounds made by the instruments! They played Duke Ellington tunes and some of the students were familiar with his music! Dion had a Q & A at the end and many students were eager to participate and ask questions!!!

Photo by Mark Robbins

Lucy Yeghiazarryan-vocalist along with Rossano Sportiello-piano went to do a vocal masterclass with the choral students at Hoggard High school. Lucy and Rossano demonstrated the importance of having a good piano player or band and showed examples of the interchange. The highlight was when all the choral students participated in singing “Your Red Wagon” and Lucy explained the “trading” with the pianist while “scatting” the melody and the students repeated her commands!
Jonathan Russell had a violin masterclass at the Ronald Sachs Violin Studio for middle school and one for high school students! There were 28 students in attendance at the Ronald Sachs Violin Studio here in Wilmington, NC. Jonathan went over some Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong songs! He also worked on techniques and improvisation with the students. Many of these students also attended the Friday night concert to see Jonathan play with the other musicians at the Ballast Hotel in Wilmington, NC .

Also at 4pm, we had senior high students from the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra to do a collective masterclass with Ehud Asherie-piano, Dion Tucker-trombone, Bruce Harris-trumpet, Chuck Redd-drums, Herman Burney-bass, and Adrian Cunningham-reeds! The music students wanted to see how a jazz band collaborates and had fun interacting with the musicians!Friday night was a great testament for the NC Jazz Festival Education program as we strive to reach a younger audience who appreciate jazz music! We had a record number of young students attending the Friday night concert!!! We also had band students from Midway High School (about an hour and half away) to attend!
Photo by Mark Robbins
Excerpt from Anne Stohl who volunteered to help with the violin masterclass!…..
Middle School- There were 16 students in attendance for this class. The students prepared Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues” and George Gershwin’s “I’ve got rhythm”. Jonathan was able to work with the kids on multiple jazz techniques such as swinging the rhythms, improvisation in different keys, pizzicato for the accompaniment sections, and their favorite “chunking” the bow to create a percussive sound when accompanying the melody. Jonathan often had 3-4 different groups playing multiple parts and layering effects at the same time. It was pure magic. Many of the kids said it was the best workshop they have ever done.

Photos by Mark Robbins

High School- There were 12 students in attendance for this class. They prepared Louis Armstrong’s “Sweet Georgia Brown” and Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train”. He taught the students many of the techniques that he taught in the middle school class such as pizzicato, swinging the rhythm, and improvising on the different keys that the pieces were in. He also taught them how to add slides and different types of ornamentation to their pieces and had them apply these new techniques to their own improv. Jonathan gave them time to ask questions and was so honest and candid with them. He treated the students as equals and this brought out some really incredible moments of musical collaboration within the group. Everyone felt so comfortable and really put themselves out there. It was quite an amazing experience to bear witness to.
Also at 4pm, we had senior high students from the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra to do a collective masterclass with Ehud Asherie-piano, Dion Tucker-trombone, Bruce Harris-trumpet, Chuck Redd-drums, Herman Burney-bass, and Adrian Cunningham-reeds! The music students wanted to see how a jazz band collaborates and had fun interacting with the musicians!
Friday night was a great testament for the NC Jazz Festival Education program as we strive to reach a younger audience who appreciate jazz music! We had a record number of young students attending the Friday night concert!!! We also had band students from Midway High School (about an hour and half away) to attend!