Before the Windsor High School’s jazz vocal ensemble performed at the UNC-Greeley Jazz Festival, director Amy Murphy could sense her students’ nerves in the warm-up room.
Murphy turned away from the group, known as “Wizardy,” to count off the rhythm section. When she looked back, they stood hand and hand in a circle, singing.
“In that moment, what they carry in their hearts became entirely visible,” Murphy said in a Weld RE-4 news release. “I saw what they’ve built together: a shimmering circle of quiet strength, of care, trust, admiration, of openness, of what is best in them. I count myself immeasurably lucky to have witnessed it. Moments like that are why we teach music.”
The group’s “dedication, artistry and passion for jazz” has led to receiving the highest national honor awarded to a high school vocal jazz ensemble, according to the release. “Wizardy” took home the High School Winner in the Large Vocal Jazz Ensemble category at the 48th Annual DownBeat Student Music Awards.
“Wizardy,” Windsor High School’s vocal jazz ensemble, at the UNC-Greeley Jazz Festival. The group was named the high school winner in the Large Vocal Jazz Ensemble category at the 48th Annual DownBeat Student Music Awards. (Woody Myers/University of Northern Colorado)DownBeat Magazine, a leader in jazz performance and education worldwide, hosts the music awards annually to showcase student achievement in categories like jazz soloist, small and large ensemble performance, composition and more, the release said.
A panel of nationally renowned jazz musicians and educators judges entries submitted by music programs at the college, high school and middle school levels, according to the release. Competing ensembles came from Europe, China, Australia, Canada and nearly every major city in the United States.
“I made the daunting decision to submit them alongside some of the most established and recognized programs in the country and around the world,” Murphy said in the release.
The competition’s rigorous judging criteria select winners based on “musicianship, creativity, improvisation, technique, sound quality and balance, excitement, and authority,” according to the release.
“This is a very special group of students,” Murphy said.
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