Pennsylvania and New Jersey high school jazz bands will compete in the 12th Annual SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase at Musikfest Café starting this weekend.
The 2024 showcase theme is Rhythmic Resonance: The Jazz Brilliance of Tomorrow. It will feature performances by 20 bands in five events in February and March, the first of which will be held Sunday, Feb. 11 at the Musikfest Café at SteelStacks at the ArtsQuest Center in Bethlehem. Each group will perform in front of a live audience and a panel of judges made up of music educators.
Among the local bands that will be competing are Freedom High School (Feb. 11 at 3 p.m.), the Southern Lehigh High School Jazz Society (Feb. 25 at 12 p.m.) and Quakertown High School (Feb. 25 at 4 p.m.).
Tickets for the Feb. 11 and Feb. 25 preliminary rounds are $7 and can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 610-332-3378. Ticket information for the final rounds of the competition will be announced soon, according to ArtsQuest officials.
The SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase is a music-in-education program of ArtsQuest and Moravian University Music Department’s Jazz Studies Program presented by KingSpry Attorneys & Counselors in partnership with Moravian University and media partner Service Electric Cable TV.
“KingSpry is thrilled to partner with ArtsQuest to present this jazz competition festival every year,” said Matthew Tranter, Deputy Managing Partner of KingSpry Attorneys & Counselors, and a board member of the Friends of Levitt Pavilion. “Our education practice serves many of the schools represented which makes this event so worthwhile in addition to seeing these talented student musicians performing and competing on stage at ArtsQuest.”
The annual jazz band showcase is part of ArtsQuest’s mission to provide access to exceptional artistic, cultural and educational experiences through the arts to residents of local communities.
ArtsQuest supports this mission by presenting performing and visual arts, film, arts education classes and outreach, youth programming and cultural events, such as Musikfest. ArtsQuest’s programming reaches more than 1.9 million people annually, and its programs and events have a combined economic impact of more than $136 million annually in the region, a news release said.
This local news story was reported with generative AI assistance.
