The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay is hosting a first-of-its-kind jazz event this Saturday, bringing together dozens of jazz students from two Traverse City high schools to do what they do best: play music.
Traverse City West Senior High and Traverse City Central High School jazz bands and ensembles will take to The Bay Theatre stage on Saturday at 7 p.m. for an evening performance featuring selections from the historical jazz giants including Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, and other jazz greats.
“Our students are very excited to perform in this venue. Many have been to the theatre for movie showings, but having live music in such an intimate venue will be a treat,” said Thomas Vieira, Traverse City Central Trojan Band director. “It is our hope that this event turns into a more regular, yearly festival showcasing our groups and students!”
Graham Powers, Bay Theatre general manager, said the original idea for the jazz centered event came from one of their volunteers, Jim Koch, who also serves as marketing committee coordinator. Koch has a long history within the jazz music industry, being a jazz musician himself and owning a music instrument store at one point. Powers said Koch had always talked about the quality of both Traverse City bands, and brought the idea of both districts coming together to the theater’s program committee.
“I think it’ll be very exciting, and the goal is to build off of this and do this each year, eventually turning it into a full weekend where we can host all of the jazz bands and ensemble groups from Leelanau county as well as throughout Grand Traverse county as well,” Powers said. “We’re getting a lot of great reception from all over TC and Leelanau county, and the ticket rate is discounted for students, so we hope to see a lot of the performers’ peers in the crowd, too.”
There will also be a special closing ceremony to conclude the evening in which each school’s band director will be presented with a donation from The Bay Theatre to encourage the further development of their music programs. Powers said funds came from a very generous anonymous donation to sponsor the program considering that these types of events normally charge a pretty hefty up front cost.
“Normally a sponsorship helps to get all the funding in place to be able to pay the sound engineer, lighting person, and the performers themselves, but because these are high schools and there’s no contract fee, we thought this was a great way to allocate those sponsorship dollars that we have for the event and put them to a cause that we really like,” Powers explained. “We have a great theater with a great stage, upgraded our audio and sound equipment, and we’ve put in new lighting, so we want to continue to put on these types of events and really kind of be a community center for music, speaking events, and just a wide array of all live entertainment.”
Vieira, Traverse City Central’s band director, said 34 band students from the school will be in Saturday’s show and have been rehearsing for this concert cycle since the beginning of December, with one of the band’s students, senior percussionist Aidan Schleuder, being from Suttons Bay. People can expect to hear a great variety of styles and music from all eras of jazz music, from “Big Band Swing” to Latin to more contemporary like “modaltype” compositions. Traverse City West Senior High will have 35 music students participating in the event.
“It is kind of going to be a showcase of their (the students) different songs and performers who are very strong in specific songs,” Powers said. “I’m very excited to see kind of how that all comes together. I have not personally heard them play, but I’m looking forward to the sound check coming up.”
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, and can be purchased online at thebaytheatre. com. Doors will open at 6 p.m. for seating and concessions and the show starts at 7 p.m.
