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Summit County music students head to the Peaks Jazz Festival

Submitted by Lynelle Eckels

Twenty-five Summit County teenagers will spend part of winter break sharing the concert stage with world-class jazz musicians at Peaks Jazz Festival, February 24-25 at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs.

Peaks is sponsored by Caleb Chapman Music (CCM), a private program based in American Fork. Since 1999 Caleb Chapman has been capturing attention with his professional bands made up of unlikely members Utah musicians aged 10 to18. Nine statewide honor bands are composed of 150 musicians from as far away as St. George.

From funk to fusion and soul to swing, Chapman’s bands have played some of the most prestigious venues in the world, including most major American cities and international jazz festivals in Europe and Mexico. CCM bands have performed with over 200 celebrity guest artists, including jazz icons, dozens of Grammy winners from every major genre, and members of bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Dave Matthews Band, AC/DC, Journey, and Tower of Power.

CCM has garnered many honors, including "Best of State" awards for top Arts and Entertainment organization and best professional band; 10 awards from jazz magazine Downbeat twice "Best High School Jazz Band" in the nation for Crescent Super Band; and international Jazz Educator of the Year for Chapman.

Summit County musicians include 25 students from seven different schools: 12 from Park City High; seven from Treasure Mountain Jr. High; two from Weilenman School of Discovery and one each from Ecker Hill Middle School, Park City Day School and South Summit Middle and High Schools.

Fully half of the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders from the Little Big Band hails from Summit County: James Eckels, Brett Howard, Rawson Simmons, Quinn Dymalski, Jack Dinger, Tyler Webb, Jacob Ascherl, Tobin Greenwald, Leo Peters, Bryan Croce, and Joe Simmons. The band has represented Utah from the National Governor’s Conference at Olympic Park to the international jazz conference in New Orleans.

Park City band members also include six in the premier Crescent Super Band – Derrick Dymalski, Hartley Greenwald, Brett Howard, Parker Swenson, Grady Tesch, and Chloe Johnson; plus Voodoo Orchestra – Quinn Schumacher, Will Schumacher, John Klein, and Molly Jager; La Onda Caribena – Molly Jager, Orville Clarke, Jack Weinrauch, and Ben Stephens; Hooligans Brass Band – Sully Tesch; and Duly Noted – Mason Stephens.

Peaks Jazz Festival provides a showcase for the Caleb Chapman bands and is one of the largest festivals of its type in the West. Peaks will host guest artists from throughout the U.S. plus many Utah jazz professionals. Headliners include Latin Grammy-nominated saxophonist Ed Calle; Wynton Marsalis’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra lead trumpet Sean Jones; steel drum virtuoso Andy Narell; Birdland drummer Tommy Igoe; and more. The event also features free clinics and competition performances by over 60 Utah student ensembles.

Concerts will be held on Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. at Westlake Auditorium, 99 North 200 West in Saratoga Springs. Friday’s concert features Ed Calle, Sean Jones, Andy Narell, Tommy Igoe and the Crescent Super Band, with Duly Noted, Hooligans Brass Band, Voodoo Orchestra, and La Onda Caribena. Saturday’s lineup features Sean Jones, Ed Calle, Alan Pasqua, Jody Espina, Rick Drumm and the Crescent Super Band with Little Big Band, Soul Research Foundation, Lo-Fi Riot, and Crescent Octet. Tickets are $10 and are available from all local CCM band members or by calling 801-763-0200. For more information, visit, http://www.CalebChapmanMusic.com


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