(Sep 5, 2006)
Hannah Nandorfy-Fischlin knows more than most
teenagers about the kind of music played at the Guelph
Jazz Festival, and she especially likes the free outdoor
jazz tent on festival Saturdays.
"I find it really fun in the tent," said the Grade 8
student at King George school, who knows her way around
an alto saxophone.
This year, though, Hannah expects she'll also find
the jazz tent a bit nerve-racking, for a while.
That's because a year-old ensemble to which she
belongs is the opening act in the jazz tent. The Guelph
Youth Jazz Ensemble will play at 11:45 a.m. Sept. 9,
after spending the two previous evenings in intensive
workshops with Montreal clarinetist Lori Freedman, a
festival artist.
Asked how she feels about performing in the tent
she's enjoyed so much in the audience, Hannah says she
is excited but also "kind of nervous. I haven't been
able to practise much, because I've been travelling this
summer."
The Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble, formed and directed
by professional saxophonist Brent Rowan, is the main
Guelph content at this year's festival. However, its
performance is more than just that. It's also a link to
the community role that the Guelph Jazz Festival sees
itself playing throughout the year.
Although the festival is about "five days of wondrous
music making" each September, says artistic director
Ajay Heble, it is "also about the community in a broader
sense."
A big part of the festival's community involvement
comes through its Jazz in the Schools program, which
sees it bring in jazz artists who hold workshops with
local music students. Currently, the program is largely
funded by the Guelph Community Foundation.
When the festival arranged a visit last winter by
Chicago composer, improviser and flute player Nicole
Mitchell for high school and university workshops, she
also worked with the Guelph Youth Jazz Ensemble. And
that led to the ensemble's upcoming workshops with
Freedman and the ensemble's Sept. 9 show at the jazz
tent, which is moving this year from Carden Street to a
closed-off Wyndham Street.
"I've always wanted to find some way to link the Jazz
in the Schools program and festival activities in
September," Heble said in an interview.
Rowan, who performed in the jazz tent in 2003 with
his Brent Rowan Quartet, said the ensemble made up of
some his private music students and their friends arose
from his desire for a group capable of playing big band
music.
"I wanted it to grow, and I can't have a band of 15
at my house (where he and his wife Anna teach music), so
I thought I'd take it into the community," he said.
So far, about a dozen young people in grades 7 to 12
have belonged to the ensemble, mostly eight or nine at a
time, so it still has room to grow to reach the size he
wants. It's now officially part of the outreach program
of the Guelph Youth Music Centre, which is handling
administration, so the ensemble is also called the GYMC
Jazz Ensemble, Rowan said.
He's hoping to eventually add a junior band where
kids needing experience can join for about a year before
moving up to the ensemble, which practises Tuesday
nights at the centre.
Asked what kind of music the ensemble plays, Rowan
said it depends to some extent on who shows up at any
given time. "Sometimes I end up with eight saxophones
and a drummer, so I have to arrange the music depending
on what I have here."
He says the ensemble plays a variety of styles. "As
we play more music, we find it harder to define what
jazz is, because there are so many different genres," he
adds.
Ian MacLeod, a Grade 11 Centennial Collegiate student
who's in the ensemble, says belonging to the group gives
its members "a good chance to be with your peers and
just have fun playing music. I think it's just fun to
meet all the new people and see what they have to offer,
music-wise."
Being part of the ensemble probably makes its members
more valuable to the school music groups they also play
in, said Yuan Wei, who's also in Grade 11 at Centennial.
As for playing the jazz tent, Grade 9 John F. Ross
student Sam de Martigny says: "I'm excited, because most
people don't get a chance to play at the jazz festival.
Should be fun."
Alexandre Valli, who's in Grade 11 at John F. Ross,
was away when Mitchell worked with the ensemble last
winter, and he's looking forward to the workshops led by
Freedman.
And in his eyes, there's another reason to look
forward to playing in the jazz tent.
"We get free festival passes, so that's a plus," he
says with a grin.
