2005 Opens With Education Initiative
Unique Collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center Benefits Pike and Monroe County High School Students
Program to Culminate in Free Concert for Area Students, Featuring Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, Led by Arturo O’Farrill, and the Newly Minted Pike/Monroe Quad-School Jazz Band
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 26, 2005
For More Information: MLC Press Office: 570.588.5800
Bushkill, Pa. - Richard T. Bryant, chief executive officer of the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, today announced that the center’s 2005 season will open on May 26 at 10 a.m. with a performance for students by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, led by music director and pianist Arturo O’Farrill. Also performing selections with O’Farrill’s ensemble will be the Pike/Monroe Quad-School Jazz Band, a new 28-member student ensemble drawn from Delaware Valley High School, East Stroudsburg High School North, East Stroudsburg High School South, and Pocono Mountain High School West. This program is part of Mountain Laurel Center’s major education initiative, designed to provide a diverse set of high-quality arts education programs that will actively engage the young people of the region and help teachers meet or exceed the core performing arts curriculum standards of their districts.
“Mountain Laurel Center takes great pride in launching our 2005 season in collaboration with one of the nation’s premier artistic organizations, Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bryant. “Through this program, students will have the opportunity to experience world-class jazz, America’s quintessential music form, in a program designed to demonstrate to young people the joyous and transformative power of music.”
Derek E. Gordon, president and CEO of Jazz at Lincoln Center, said, “This is the first step in what we hope can be a long and fruitful relationship between Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Mountain Laurel Center. Our collaboration will involve both the education and performance units of Jazz at Lincoln Center as a significant part of future summer seasons at Mountain Laurel.” Gordon praised Bryant’s efforts to bring jazz to young audiences at Mountain Laurel, saying, “I have known Richard Bryant’s work for many years, and I know of his deep commitment to enriching the lives of young people though ongoing, high-caliber arts-in-education programs. His presence as Mountain Laurel’s leader bodes well for the future of arts education in the region.”
Mountain Laurel Center’s education initiative is sponsored by a generous grant from the United States Department of Education (DOE) with additional support from the Essa Foundation. Thanks to the leadership of Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, the grant from the DOE’s Fund for the Improvement of Education supports the Mountain Laurel Center program, whose goal is to continuing arts-in-education programming for up to 15,000 K-12 students in Pike and Monroe Counties and the surrounding region this year.
This spring’s Mountain Laurel Center education program will feature an in-school residency by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble led by Arturo O’Farrill. Twenty-eight student musicians nominated by their band directors from Delaware Valley High School, East Stroudsburg High School North, East Stroudsburg High School South and Pocono Mountain High School West will participate in a series of rigorous workshops and rehearsals. In addition to working with the student musicians, Mr. O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble will conduct lecture-demonstration programs for the larger student populations of the participating high schools and/or nearby middle schools. Mountain Laurel Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center will provide the schools with educational materials to complement the program.
The in-school residency program will culminate on Thursday, May 26 with the concert at Mountain Laurel Center’s Tom Ridge Pavilion, featuring the Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble and the Pike/Monroe Quad-School Jazz Band. The 10 a.m. concert will be free of charge to student groups in grades 6 through 12.
The Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble is led by pianist and music director Arturo O’Farrill, and is comprised of members of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, for which O’Farrill also serves as music director. Comprised of prominent soloists from the Latin jazz scene, the ensembles play classics of the Afro-Latin jazz tradition, commission new works, and lead educational events. The members of the Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble appearing in the Mountain Laurel Center residency include O’Farrill; Mike Rodriguez; trumpet; Peter Brainin, tenor saxophone; Joe Gonzalez and Roland Guerrero, Latin percussion; Phoenix Rivera; drums, and Ruben Rodriguez, bass.
Mountain Laurel Center’s education initiative was launched in February with a week-long residency by composer-conductor Jim Papoulis, who worked with students from East Stroudsburg North Middle and High schools in a songwriting workshop. During a week of intensive study, the high school students wrote the song “If I Could,” which they premiered at a special student assembly at East Stroudsburg North High School. The student musicians also recorded a CD of the song, which was made in collaboration with Papoulis’ Foundation for Small Voices. “If I Could” will be performed at the Tom Ridge Pavilion during graduation ceremonies for East Stroudsburg North High School, held this year at Mountain Laurel Center on June 9.
Admission to the May 26 concert at Mountain Laurel Center is open to student groups and their teachers in grades 6 through 12. Admission is free, but reservations are required. For more information, educators may visit www.mountainlaurelcenter.org, or call MLC’s Acting Education Manager Stephanie Chaiken at 570.588.5951.
Mountain Laurel Center is the spectacular new performing arts center located in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. Plans for the remainder of the 2005 Summer Season will be announced shortly. For breaking news and season updates from Mountain Laurel Center, patrons may visit www.mountainlaurelcenter.org and sign up for the Center’s e-news list. The
Mountain Laurel Center is supported by generous grants from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell, Governor; and the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children’s concerts, lectures, adult education courses, and student and educator workshops. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, President & CEO Derek E. Gordon, Executive Director Katherine E. Brown, Chairman of the Board Lisa Schiff and Jazz at Lincoln Center Board and staff, Jazz at Lincoln Center will produce hundreds of events during its 2004-05 season. This is the inaugural season in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, the first-ever performance, education and broadcast facility devoted to jazz. For more information, visit www.jalc.org.
