Switch from cello to piano at FHS launches Jen (Clark) Allen's jazz career
By Christine Igo Freeman
Jen Allen, who grew up here and graduated from Foxboro High School in the Class of 1995 as Jen Clark, is a jazz musician who is making beautiful music on the piano. This spring, she was chosen as one of eight pianists to participate in the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Emerging Artist Workshop at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
But her success on the keyboard, which includes the release of her first CD in May, came about somewhat by chance -- thanks in large part to her high school music teacher.
Although Allen began her musical career taking piano lessons when she was in the first grade, she has not always been a pianist. In fact, after that one year she decided piano was not her thing, so the lessons stopped. She did not pick up or play another instrument until she was in fifth grade, when she chose to learn cello in school.
She was still playing the cello in high school when Music Director Stephen Massey asked Allen if she would consider playing piano in the jazz band.
"Mr. Massey needed a jazz pianist and I fell in love with playing jazz," Allen explains.
Massey says it is not unusual for music students, especially in a small town, to learn more than one instrument. He gave Allen her first jazz piano lessons when she was a junior in high school and she has been playing ever since.
She graduated from Foxboro High School in the Class of 1995 and decided to pursue piano by taking lessons at the Berklee College of Music for a year. She auditioned for music school in the fall of 1996 and auditioned on cello. She was accepted into the Hartt School, which is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
It was during her time as a student at the Hartt School that she was inspired by, and studied with, jazz great Jackie McLean. McLean was a saxophonist and was the founder of the jazz program at the Hartt School.
"He taught me the history of jazz and the language of jazz. He was a walking history," Allen recalls with a smile. "He played with musicians like Miles Davis ... It was amazing."
Allen truly appreciates the opportunity she had to learn from McLean and others from "that generation."
"The way they explained to me the depth of the history of why and how it is the way it is, inspired me even more."
Sadly, McLean has since passed away, but his musical spirit lives on through the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz named in his honor at the Hartt School.
Allen is now passionate about and has a deep cultural appreciation for jazz as an American art form.
But her success on the keyboard, which includes the release of her first CD in May, came about somewhat by chance -- thanks in large part to her high school music teacher.
Although Allen began her musical career taking piano lessons when she was in the first grade, she has not always been a pianist. In fact, after that one year she decided piano was not her thing, so the lessons stopped. She did not pick up or play another instrument until she was in fifth grade, when she chose to learn cello in school.
She was still playing the cello in high school when Music Director Stephen Massey asked Allen if she would consider playing piano in the jazz band.
"Mr. Massey needed a jazz pianist and I fell in love with playing jazz," Allen explains.
Massey says it is not unusual for music students, especially in a small town, to learn more than one instrument. He gave Allen her first jazz piano lessons when she was a junior in high school and she has been playing ever since.
She graduated from Foxboro High School in the Class of 1995 and decided to pursue piano by taking lessons at the Berklee College of Music for a year. She auditioned for music school in the fall of 1996 and auditioned on cello. She was accepted into the Hartt School, which is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
It was during her time as a student at the Hartt School that she was inspired by, and studied with, jazz great Jackie McLean. McLean was a saxophonist and was the founder of the jazz program at the Hartt School.
"He taught me the history of jazz and the language of jazz. He was a walking history," Allen recalls with a smile. "He played with musicians like Miles Davis ... It was amazing."
Allen truly appreciates the opportunity she had to learn from McLean and others from "that generation."
"The way they explained to me the depth of the history of why and how it is the way it is, inspired me even more."
Sadly, McLean has since passed away, but his musical spirit lives on through the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz named in his honor at the Hartt School.
Allen is now passionate about and has a deep cultural appreciation for jazz as an American art form.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment