On March 30th, Ms. Allen organized a new jazz festival for the Belmont Hill community! Although it is Ms. Allen’s first year teaching at Belmont Hill, she has already injected so much new energy into the music program. One of her plans for this year was to enhance the music experience for not only the students involved with music but also the school community as a whole. The perfect event for this would be a jazz festival.
A jazz festival is typically a gathering of musicians who play music together. These festivals also help share different aspects of jazz and promote learning from each other. the unique opportunity to gain experience from other musicians with different backgrounds and levels is highly valued within these gatherings. In other events, people come in with pre-prepared pieces that are performed the same way, whereas in jazz festivals, everyone improvises something different, and specific feedback can be given for each person’s playing style. It is a celebration of jazz including many musicians as well as adjudicators. The format promotes growth for each musician that attends.
The festival at Belmont Hill started off with a performance by Vesuvio, a dynamic jazz/fusion band made up of five members from different corners of the world. After the initial performance, a few members of the Belmont Hill Upper School Jazz Band attended a workshop by Jess Destramp, a saxophone player and music teacher in the Boston area, on improvisation and soloing. An ensemble from Newton South also attended the festival and performed some of their pieces with the rest of the attendees. After the Newton South performance, the Belmont Hill Upper School Jazz Band performed their select songs. After the performance, Ms. Allen held a jam session, during which anyone who wanted to perform could play a song of their choice.
Overall, the inaugural Belmont Hill Jazz Festival was hugely successful with students enjoying their time learning from professional musicians and other fellow high school musicians. There were also many student and teacher volunteers who helped with the food and sign-up table. Adrian Tan ‘25, who volunteered at the food table, said “I didn’t really know what to expect from the jazz festival, but I have to say if it happens next year, the food table is definitely the place to be. You get to have pizza as well as listen to amazing music, all for free!”
In the words of Brandon Li ’26: “Overall, I think the festival was very fun. We got a chance to learn from professionals and the atmosphere got more lively over time. I also admire Ms. Allen for making things work out with this new idea.”
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the hard work of Ms. Allen. She has worked tirelessly this year to make music as enjoyable as possible for everyone on campus, whether that be organizing extra Coffee Houses, making a huge jazz festival, or having student performers in the Chapel, she has had a huge impact on the music program.
