Sleepy Hollow Jazz Festival Concert To Feature Regional Schools

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY – The Public Schools of the Tarrytowns will be hosting the 2024 Sleepy Hollow Jazz Festival Friday in which several schools districts from the Hudson Valley will participate.

The festival is one of the largest educational celebrations of jazz music and culture in the region, reaching approximately 200 students across four counties.

After clinics and workshops during the day, there will be a free concert beginning at 7 p.m. Friday in the Kusel Auditorium of Sleepy Hollow High School.

It will feature seven of the finest high school jazz bands and will include Westchester County’s first regional Vocal Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lauren Kinhan.

This event marks the 18th year Sleepy Hollow High School has hosted and the first since the pandemic, according to a district spokesperson.

The concert will also be showcasing three extraordinary guest artists, including composer and pianist Shamie Royston, saxophonist player Andrew Gould and esteemed trombonist and educator Steve Davis.

Students from eight different school districts have been invited to participate in this ensemble. They include Edgemont High School, Scarsdale High School, Mamaroneck High School, Valhalla High School, Newburgh Academy, Walter Panas High School and The Harvey School.

Earlier in the day Friday, the group will convene to prepare a program of music for the evening concert. The guest artists will listen to performances by all seven bands and interact with the groups during the day in clinics. They will share their love of music and knowledge of the jazz idiom with the students.

Three bands will be selected to perform in that evening’s concert. All bands will be eligible for awards such as outstanding soloist, outstanding brass section and outstanding rhythm section which will be given out at the concert. The schools participating in this portion of the event include Valhalla High School, Croton-Harmon High School, Blind Brook High School, Goshen High School, Mamaroneck High School, Mahopac High School and Pleasantville High School.

“I am thrilled that we are able to provide this amazing opportunity for performance and collaboration to the students in our region. The spirit of Jazz music is in many ways rooted in the concepts of community, creativity, and sharing of knowledge,” said Austin Day, New York State Band Directors Association Honor Jazz Ensemble chairperson and band/music technology teacher at Sleepy Hollow Middle/High School.

“This festival embodies these ideas and I am just beyond excited to learn with the students, share ideas, and have fun listening to and making music with talented students and masters of the craft,” he said. “This will certainly be an extraordinary day.”

The concert is free and open to the public. No advanced ticket sales are required.

This program is made possible by the support of the Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns, with additional thanks to the musical instrument company D’Addario for supplying prize packs for each participating group and the Sleepy Hollow Performing Arts Boosters for their support of the daytime and evening events, according to information from the district.