Our school is a public four-year high school with a wide range of students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Approximately 35-40% of our student body participates in fine arts on some level. Offering our music students the chance to succeed is my top priority. We strive daily to make opportunities available for our high school students to further their musical skills and expand their horizons.
Students attending our school have earned recognition at the district, state, regional, and national level.
We have alumni working on Broadway, teaching college and public school music, and performing as professionals all over the world. Our music department has a 100+ year history of excellence, and we try every day to live up to that legacy. We offer jazz band, two levels of string orchestra, and concert band, pep band, and marching band. We also have strong choral, guitar, drama, and fine arts programs.
My Project
The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time. Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night. The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed, without any regard to copyright law, or royalties paid to the composers who created these musical masterpieces.
Now we have the first legitimate and legal editions of these books ever produced.
Our students can now have access to the best resource on the planet for learning how to play jazz in small group settings. If we do need to change the way we do business due to the pandemic, resources like this will help us be ready to work with students in small ensembles rather than the traditional big band setting. The Real Books are the standard by which all other jazz collections are measured. Having copies of these books on our shelves will help us in the upcoming school year and on into the future.
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