Riley Greenfield is part of the Jazz Band at Susan E. Wagner High School and has been working on her upright bass improvised solo for months, describing it as a lot of \u201ctrial and error.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes at the end of Duke Ellington\u2019s \u201cSugarhill Penthouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival brings 20 of the best high school jazz bands from across the country to Jazz at Lincoln Center\u2019s Frederick P. Rose Hall
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Around 119 schools applied to participate
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Susan E. Wagner High School is competing for a fourth consecutive year
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Paul Corn, the assistant principal of performing and visual arts at Susan E. Wagner High School, said his jazz band sent in auditions for approximately 15 years before making it<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little stressful at first, but once you figure it out, it\u2019s a lot of fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The junior is getting ready to compete at Jazz at Lincoln Center\u2019s 31st Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited. Because a lot of people don\u2019t get this opportunity,\u201d Greenfield told NY1.<\/p>\n
The competition brings 20 of the best high school jazz bands from across the country to Jazz at Lincoln Center\u2019s Frederick P. Rose Hall. Around 119 schools applied to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it shows how much dedication we put in because we\u2019re not like a special school for the arts,\u201d Greenfield said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Susan E. Wagner High School\u2019s fourth consecutive year taking part. In 2023, the school\u2019s first year competing, they came in second.<\/p>\n
It is the only school representing New York at this year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n
Paul Corn, the assistant principal of performing and visual arts at Susan E. Wagner High School, said his jazz band sent in auditions for approximately 15 years before making it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a comprehensive high school in New York City, a New York City public high school that is not an arts-only school, or arts-first school, or arts-only audition school. So for us to make it four years in a row is, I know, is unheard of in New York,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Corn conducts Susan E. Wagner\u2019s jazz band and has taught at the music program for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing else like it. It\u2019s the best experience I\u2019ve ever had as a teacher, as a musician, as an artist,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a testament to the kids working hard and what they can accomplish, even though most of them won\u2019t go into music as a career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abigail Saladis is one of those students. She is the lead trumpeter in the jazz band, practicing two hours a day outside of rehearsals, and is heading to Binghamton next year to major in English.<\/p>\n
\u201cA music program and a music education should help further you for life and, like, give you a lot of these qualities that can be applicable to other standards of, like, what you\u2019re going to do in your future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s her third time participating in Essentially Ellington and said her favorite part is becoming friends with other young musicians from across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get to meet all these different people. I still talk to kids who I met from Essentially Ellington last year, and we talk about how excited we are to see each other and we also help each other with music,\u201d Saladis told NY1.<\/p>\n
The competition runs from April 30 through May 2. Tickets are available to watch the competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Riley Greenfield is part of the Jazz Band at Susan E. Wagner High School and has been working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2476,203,25,2025,67,3691,9,24,12,63,134,136,135,27,200],"class_list":["post-214434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-app-community","tag-app-education","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-education","tag-emma-barnett","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}