The 6th Annual Next Generation Festival | April 9th – 11th, 2010

Monterey
Jazz Festival’s
Next Generation Festival
Now Accepting Applications From Student Big Bands,
Combos,
Vocal Ensembles, Composers, Individual Musicians

Next Generation Festival Jazz Competition Open
To Middle School, High School, Conglomerate School,
And College Level Musicians And Vocalists

Country’s
Top Young Players Compete For Performance Opportunities
At 53rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September
17 – 19, 2010

Next Generation
Festival Includes Free Concerts, Clinics, Workshops,
And Jazz Competition, April 9 – 11, 2010 In
Historic Downtown Monterey

Four-Time
Grammy Winning Vocalist, Dianne Reeves,
Named Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2010 Artist-In-Residence

October
26,
2009; Monterey, CA;
The Monterey Jazz Festival, a leader
in jazz education since its inception
in 1958, is pleased to announce the 6th
Annual Next Generation Festival,
featuring the nation’s most talented
middle school, high school, conglomerate
school, and college jazz musicians
and vocalists. The Next Generation
Festival will take place in historic
downtown Monterey from April
9 – 11, 2010.

Now
in its 6th successful year in downtown
Monterey, the Next Generation Festival
evolved from MJF’s “California
High School Jazz Competition” which
started in 1971 and was presented at
the Monterey County Fairgrounds for
35 of its 40-year run.  Now named
the Next Generation Festival, the weekend
salute to the future of jazz has expanded
to include middle school, conglomerate
school, and college level musicians
and vocalists.

The
Next Generation Festival Jazz Competition
is now accepting applications from
middle school, high
school, and college
big bands; from high
school and college
level conglomerate bands;
and from high school combos and vocal
jazz ensembles through January
22, 2010. Application forms may be
downloaded at the Monterey Jazz Festival’s
website, www.montereyjazzfestival.org.
The application process is free of
charge, as is participation in the
prestigious event.

A three-year
grant from the Surdna Foundation supports
the Next Generation Festival and
the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra’s
international tours. The Surdna Foundation’s
Arts Program is national in scope
and supports the artistic advancement
of teens, ages 12 – 18.

Next
Generation Festival finalists
are selected through recorded auditions
reviewed and ranked by faculty from
the Berklee College of Music, and will
include twelve big
bands, six
combos, and eight
vocal ensembles in
the High School Division. Six
college-level big bands and six
college vocal ensembles will
also be selected, in addition to six
conglomerate and six
middle school big bands.

New
for 2010 is
the Open Combo Division for college and conglomerate
high school ensembles.
Six finalist combos will be selected
to participate in this newest division.
In addition, specially-invited groups
will also perform. In 2009, over fifty
groups from across the United States
as well as international groups from
the U.K. and Japan attended the Next
Generation Festival.

The high school,
conglomerate school, and college
divisions of the Next Generation
Festival Jazz Competition are open
to superior rated big bands, combos,
and vocal ensembles. The top big bands,
combo, and vocal ensemble will win
cash awards and be invited to perform
at the 53rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival,
September 17 – 19, 2010.

Auditions
will also be held for chairs in the
Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next
Generation Jazz Orchestra,
which is slated to tour at jazz venues
and festivals throughout North America,
as well as being featured on the Monterey
Jazz Festival’s Sunday afternoon Arena/Lyons
Stage.

The event
also includes a big
band composition competition,
open to high school composers, with
the winning piece to be debuted at
the 53rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival
by the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.
Judged by college faculty from leading
music schools across the country,
the winning composer will receive
the Gerald Wilson Award and a cash
prize, with the winning composition
to be performed by the Next Generation
Jazz Orchestra at the 53rd Annual
Monterey Jazz Festival, September
19, 2010, on the Jimmy Lyons Stage
in the Arena before a crowd of thousands.

“Plans
are well underway for making our 6th
annual Next Generation Festival another
exciting MJF event,” said Dr. Rob
Klevan, Education Director
for the Monterey Jazz Festival. “April
9 – 11, 2010, is a special weekend
as it marks the 40th anniversary for
the Monterey Jazz Festival’s
High School Competition, but for anyone
who has ever attended the Next Generation
Festival, it’s clear that our
emphasis is on presenting a ‘festival’ as
the very best of the next generation
of jazz musicians, from middle school
to college, gather in Monterey
to perform, listen, learn, and enjoy
this great American music, jazz. For
students, teachers, and jazz fans alike,
the celebratory atmosphere and festive
vibe at the Next Generation Festival
is what makes this event so fun and
special.”

All
Next Generation Festival events and
activities —
from Friday night’s Kick-Off Concert
through Saturday and Sunday’s Next
Generation Festival Jazz Competition
— are open to the public, free
of charge. The Festival
will also conduct clinics, workshops,
jam sessions, and auditions in the
heart of historic Monterey, with
music to be performed at the Monterey
Conference Center, the host Portola
Plaza Hotel, Fisherman’s Wharf,
Cannery Row, and a downtown jazz
club.

Interested
schools and students should visit www.montereyjazzfestival.org for
instructions on how to apply to the
Next Generation Festival. Applications
with an audition tape/CD should be
mailed to: Next Generation Festival,
c/o Dr. Rob Klevan, Jazz Education
Director, 9699 Blue Larkspur Lane,
Suite 204, Monterey, CA, 93940.

Featured during
the weekend of music will be the four-time
Grammy-winning vocalist, Dianne
Reeves,
who has been selected as the MJF’s
Artist-In-Residence for 2010. As MJF’s
Artist-In-Residence, Reeves will work
year-round with young student musicians
in performances, clinics and one-on-one
sessions at the Next Generation Festival
and the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, in addition
to performing at the Monterey Jazz
Festival and at other MJF concerts
and events throughout the year. Started
in 2004, the MJF Artist-In-Residence
program has brought Regina Carter,
Branford Marsalis, Kurt Elling, Terence
Blanchard, Christian McBride, and members
of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz
Orchestra to the Monterey Bay; their
involvement and interaction with students
provides a unique educational opportunity
through mentorship that will last a
lifetime.

About Dianne Reeves

A
Blue Note recording artist since 1987,
Dianne Reeves is the pre-eminent jazz
vocalist in the world today. As a result
of her virtuosity, improvisational
prowess and unique jazz and R&B
stylings, Reeves was awarded the Grammy
for “Best Jazz Vocal Performance” for
three consecutive recordings (In
The Moment: Live in Concert (2000); The
Calling (2001) and A Little
Moonlight in 2003)  — a
Grammy first in any vocal category.
She has recorded eighteen albums as
a leader, and has appeared on dozens
of others with such artists ranging
from Stanley Turrentine, Steps Ahead,
Lou Rawls, McCoy Tyner, George Duke,
T.S. Monk, Lenny White, Christian McBride,
Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard,
and many more.

Born in Detroit
and raised in Denver, Colorado, Reeves
has additionally recorded and performed
extensively with Wynton Marsalis and
the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra;
recorded with Chicago Symphony Orchestra
(conducted by Daniel Barenboim); and
was a featured soloist with Sir Simon
Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.
In 2002, Reeves performed at the closing
ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City, Utah, and also made
an appearance and performance on the
season finale of HBO’s Sex and
the City. In 2003, Reeves was
appointed to be first Creative Chair
for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic
and became the first singer to ever
perform at the famed Walt Disney Concert
Hall.

Continuing to blend screen and song,
in 2005, Reeves appeared and performed
in George Clooney’s Good
Night, and Good Luck, the Academy
Award-nominated film that chronicles
Edward R. Murrow’s confrontation
with Senator Joseph McCarthy. The soundtrack
recording of Good Night, and Good
Luck provided Reeves her fourth
Best Jazz Vocal Grammy in 2006.

In 2007,
Reeves was featured in Robert
Levi’s Emmy,
Peabody and Writers Guild Award-winning
documentary, Billy Strayhorn: Lush
Life. After several years of extensive
touring, Dianne took a break back in
Denver, and in 2008, she released her
first Blue Note album of new material
in five years, When You Know.
MJF/53 in 2009 will be her ninth performance
at the Monterey Jazz Festival — she
has previously appeared in 1984, 1986,
1988, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2000, and 2006.

About
the Monterey Jazz Festival

The Monterey Jazz Festival, founded
in 1958, is a nonprofit organization
and is dedicated to perpetuating the
uniquely American form of music known
as jazz by producing performances that
celebrate the legacy and expand the
boundaries of jazz; and by presenting
year-round local, regional, national,
and international jazz education programs.
These hands-on, cutting-edge educational
components include the Traveling Clinician
and Latin Jazz Programs, with professional
musicians visiting Monterey County
schools to teach students how to play
and improvise in jazz and Latin styles;
the Artist-In-Residence Program, which
brings a leading jazz performer to
work with students throughout the year;
the MJF Summer Jazz Camp, the MJF Instrument
and Sheet Music Library, the MJF Digital
Music Education Project, the Next Generation
Festival, the Monterey County High
School All-Star Band, the MJF Middle
School Honor Band and MJF Vocal Jazz
Ensemble, and the Next Generation Jazz
Orchestra.