How to Participate

The 18th Annual Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival will be held May 10-12, 2013 at Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City.

The annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is one of the most innovative jazz education events in the world. Each year, high school musicians from across North America travel to New York City to spend three days immersed in workshops, jam sessions, rehearsals and performances at the "House of Swing," Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Held each May, the Competition & Festival is the culmination of the yearlong Essentially Ellington program, during which participating bands are invited to submit a recording and 15 finalists are selected through a rigorous screening process. Each finalist band receives an in-school workshop led by a professional musician before coming to New York to put up their "Dukes" and perform before Wynton Marsalis and a panel of esteemed judges. Past workshop clinicians have included trumpeter Terell Stafford; jazz educator Ronald Carter; Justin DiCioccio, director of Jazz Studies at Manhattan School of Music; saxophonist Loren Schoenberg; pianist and educator Reginald Thomas; and Jazz at Lincoln Center's own Victor Goines. Among the past judges have been former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conductor and arranger David Berger; Gunther Schuller, who, according to All Music Guide, "is composer, conductor, horn player, jazz performer, writer, administrator, publisher, and teacher, all wrapped up into one tiny bundle of seemingly endless energy"; Pulitzer Prize-nominated jazz musician and composer David Baker; and, of course, Wynton Marsalis himself.

Click here to learn more about our team of clinicians and mentors.

The festival concludes with a concert and awards ceremony featuring the three top-placing bands and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis.

All bands that participate in Essentially Ellington have the option of submitting an application and recording for the annual Competition & Festival. Recordings can also be submitted for comments only. Bands are encouraged to make a recording, no matter their level of experience. Every submission receives thorough professional feedback and a signed certificate from our recording adjudicators.

COMPETITION & FESTIVAL APPLICATION INFORMATION

Bands that wish to enter the Competition & Festival must select three (3) tunes from the Essentially Ellington library to record for their Competition application, as well as complete an Application Form and submit a brief bio of their program.

Please note that we’ve replaced the Category system used in years past and this year, acceptance to the Competition & Festival will be determined by geographic region. We’ve divided the country into 5 regions and will select three bands from each region to attend the annual Competition & Festival in New York City. We want our finalists to accurately represent the greatest jazz bands across the country, so this means that new submissions, previous winners, and community bands all have an equal opportunity to make it to the Festival this year.

View Competition & Festival Recording Guidelines 
Complete Competition & Festival Application Form
Please make sure to read through these materials for complete instructions.

Comments Only Application Information

Bands that wish to enter a submission for Comments Only may select up to three (3) tunes from the Essentially Ellington library to record for their application. In addition to the recording, bands must complete an Application Form and submit a brief bio of their program.

View Comments Only Guidelines
Complete Comments Only Application Form
Please make sure to read through these materials for complete instructions.

Through its annual Essentially Ellington program, Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) co-produces noncompetitive, education-focused festivals designed to offer high school jazz bands of all levels the opportunity to perform the music of Duke Ellington and other seminal big band composers and arrangers. Participating bands receive professional feedback from JALC clinicians and other jazz professionals in their own backyard. This year’s festivals will be held:

• January 12, 2013 at Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)
• February 16, 2013 at Sun Prairie High School (Sun Prairie, WI)
• February 21, 2013 at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)
• March 23, 2013 at Broward College (Davie, FL)
• March 13, 2013 at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA)
• March 23, 2013 at Greenwich High School (Greenwich, CT)
• March 23, 2013 at Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY)
• April 4, 2013 at Mesa Arts Center (Mesa, AZ)
• April 20, 2013 at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
• April 27, 2013 at University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Lafayette, LA)

For more information on Essentially Ellington Regional Festivals, please contact us at ee@jalc.org.