from Jazz at Lincoln Center

Dear friend,

Some dreams are going to come true tonight. Did you help make them happen?

This evening, the final concert of the 2016 Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival will take place in Frederick P. Rose Hall. At jazz.org/live, you can watch as the three finalists perform—and Wynton Marsalis announces the first-place band—starting at 7:30pm EDT.

All of the students in each of the 15 competing ensembles at the festival have worked incredibly hard to get to New York City. They practiced for untold hours, studied recordings, met after school and on weekends, and forged unbreakable bonds with their bandmates while creating indelible memories of the journey from their band rooms to the House of Swing.

Thanks to our donors, Jazz at Lincoln Center is there every step of the way. Each year, we distribute nearly 30,000 newly transcribed scores to the bands participating in Essentially Ellington; we host a network of regional festivals; we send professional musicians to workshop the finalist bands in their own communities; and we organize and host the three-day festival, which gives many aspiring musicians their first experience in a city known as the Mecca of jazz.

If you’ve donated to Jazz at Lincoln Center in the past year, I thank youfor helping to make the 21st Essentially Ellington competition possible and giving these dedicated young artists a launching pad. If you haven’t, please support our mission: it takes just $50 to provide a score to a jazz band and help make dreams come true.

In the Spirit of Swing, 

Todd Stoll

Vice President, Education