A Feat to Compete

By Sarah Ramsden

Staff Reporter

March 2022

On February 23, the BMHS Jazz Orchestra qualified as finalists in the Essentially Ellington jazz competition, and was invited to perform in New York City. This is a highly competitive event that has hundreds of jazz bands from all around the country submit their renditions of Duke Ellington’s music. Fifteen jazz bands are then selected as finalists to perform in New York.

Beloit Memorial has traditionally had a lot of success competing in Essentially Ellington, as this is their tenth time as a finalist. However, in recent years, they have had to overcome many challenges presented by Covid. In 2020, the band was ecstatic to learn they were traveling to New York, but they were crushed when the pandemic began and the competition went virtual.

Senior Avery Mitchell was a sophomore in 2020 when Covid first canceled their trip: “It felt surreal when I found out we had made it to EE. It had always been a dream of mine, but I never thought it would be a reality. Then I was super torn when I found out we couldn’t go, because we had worked so hard and were all prepared, so to find out that we couldn’t go was crushing,” Mitchell said.

The next year, 2021, classes were virtual for most of the year, but the jazz band still decided to record and submit a song. They were meeting a couple of days a week when school started up again, but it just wasn’t enough for them to make it to New York.

“I was super unmotivated during Covid. I lost the positive mindset about jazz,” Mitchell commented. “But not getting in last year motivated us, and we worked so hard this year, because for seniors it was our last chance.”

After Covid restrictions started to lift, live music became possible again, and with that came much excitement for the jazz students.

Junior Kai Wong said that he was excited that concerts had resumed: “It felt great to be able to express myself in front of an audience, and it feels like there is a purpose to practicing now.”

Senior Eamonn Rougvie added that there’s a lot of excitement these days. “I think it’s insane, because we are so glad to be back, the audience is so glad to be back, there’s just so much energy,” he mentioned. “Lots of people come to watch, and they cheer and clap. At our last gig I was smiling the whole time and having so much fun.”

Now that the band has made it to Essentially Ellington, everyone is feeling positive and excited, but there is still a lot of work to go. To prepare, the jazz orchestra is holding sectionals outside of school, practicing a lot on their instruments, and bringing in a clinician to work with them before New York.

“It feels like things are coming full circle and finally getting back to normal,” said senior Kelechi Anyanwu. “Between now and May, we need to hold ourselves accountable for working hard, be there for each other, and make sure that we are at our best when we’re up on that stage.”

“We just need to work two times as hard,” Rougvie added.