The Beach Cities have a rich history of jazz with The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach leading the way. Because of this, the Young Musicians Performance Academy was created seven years ago to foster the fundamentals of jazz and give children a lesson in a music genre rarely taught.
The YMPA, which is based in Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, recently took their talents to the Windy City where they not only performed at the Hard Rock Cafe, but also participated in the 27th annual Jazz in the Meadows Festival. Many of the students who took the trip to Chicago have been with the program since its inception in 2005 when musicians Megan Swan and Ken Harrison founded it.
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"There are strong classical programs here, but we thought there really wasn't much jazz going on," Swan said. "Both of us have experience in jazz ... we had to go elsewhere for our own performances and for our own learning."
Fourth to 12th grade students can participate in the YMPA as a supplement to school music programs like the one at Mira Costa as well as private lessons. The younger students begin at the YMPA with its big band, but branch out into ensemble jazz groups, the Elite Jazz Ensemble and the Advanced Jazz Ensemble, when they reach Mira Costa and participate in its music programs. The students get an education in various genres and learn from award-winning musicians. The YMPA curriculum features playing written music, from swing to Latin, and puts an emphasis on improvisation, which is the heart of jazz. Swan said they also teach the history of jazz, but not out of a book.
"That's not what jazz is," Swan said. "We try to bring it back to how do people who really play jazz learn it. In New Orleans, you don't learn out of the book. There are parade bands constantly walking around and music is just a part of your life."
Trumpet player Jeff Mohan, a senior at Mira Costa and an original member of YMPA, joined in the sixth grade. Throughout the years, he's developed a "different kind of friendship" with his fellow bandmates that is built around music.
Fourth to 12th grade students can participate in the YMPA as a supplement to school music programs like the one at Mira Costa as well as private lessons. The younger students begin at the YMPA with its big band, but branch out into ensemble jazz groups, the Elite Jazz Ensemble and the Advanced Jazz Ensemble, when they reach Mira Costa and participate in its music programs. The students get an education in various genres and learn from award-winning musicians. The YMPA curriculum features playing written music, from swing to Latin, and puts an emphasis on improvisation, which is the heart of jazz. Swan said they also teach the history of jazz, but not out of a book.
"That's not what jazz is," Swan said. "We try to bring it back to how do people who really play jazz learn it. In New Orleans, you don't learn out of the book. There are parade bands constantly walking around and music is just a part of your life."
Trumpet player Jeff Mohan, a senior at Mira Costa and an original member of YMPA, joined in the sixth grade. Throughout the years, he's developed a "different kind of friendship" with his fellow bandmates that is built around music.
"It's different when we're communicating with music and it really is communication," Mohan said. "We'll tell jokes in musical form. We'll play something and then the guitarist will respond a little differently and then we'll shoot back and forth like that. It's a new and different kind of communication and friendship that you only get through music."
Swan said the YMPA was something good that came out of something bad, a car accident that nearly killed her husband, Ken. After he was hit by a drunk driver at the intersection of Pier Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, Ken was put in the hospital. At the time he was teaching music at Dietz Brothers. Thinking he was lucky to be alive jolted him in thinking of ways they could provide more for the local music scene. They contacted Manhattan Beach elementary school music teacher Dawn Farmer and asked if any of her students would be interested in taking on an added challenge.
"She put the word out for (the) first group of kids from her honor band who wanted that extra challenge and who were looking for more musical expression and she sent them over to us," Swan said. "That is about 80 percent of the kids who were on this trip (to Chicago). I think they were in fourth and fifth grade when they started. Those are our babies."
Swan said the YMPA was something good that came out of something bad, a car accident that nearly killed her husband, Ken. After he was hit by a drunk driver at the intersection of Pier Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, Ken was put in the hospital. At the time he was teaching music at Dietz Brothers. Thinking he was lucky to be alive jolted him in thinking of ways they could provide more for the local music scene. They contacted Manhattan Beach elementary school music teacher Dawn Farmer and asked if any of her students would be interested in taking on an added challenge.
"She put the word out for (the) first group of kids from her honor band who wanted that extra challenge and who were looking for more musical expression and she sent them over to us," Swan said. "That is about 80 percent of the kids who were on this trip (to Chicago). I think they were in fourth and fifth grade when they started. Those are our babies."
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