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- Jazz
Monday, March 20, 2023
Carroll Jazz students participated in the Region 31 Jazz Auditions on Saturday, September 17, and produced stellar results. This is the first year of existence for TMEA Region 31, which consists of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Coppell, Grapevine-Colleyville, Birdville, HEB and Carroll school districts.
Out of 40 spots available across two All-Region jazz ensembles, Dragons won 22 of them, including ten in Jazz Ensemble 1. Those ten students have advanced to the Area level and will record their auditions for All-State in two weeks. See below a list of Dragons advancing to the Area level.
The Carroll Middle School Jazz Band competed in The Pride of Texas Music Festival recently. The event was Tuesday, May 12 at the iT’z in Euless.
The students performed extremely well, and received the highest score possible from all judges – First Division/Superior. Comments from the judges included: “Great style and balance.” “Very unique!” “Amazing job!” “Overall great articulation and style!” “Very nice!!” “Such fun music! You did a great job.” “This group understands jazz language!” Click here for more information about the Pride of Texas Music Festival.
The CMS Jazz Band will have its final concert at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27 at Carroll Middle School.
The Emerald Belles competed at MA Nationals March 20-21 at the Fort Worth Convention Center and were awarded 6th place overall. The Belles entered in three dance categories and won 1st place in High Kick, 1st place in Lyrical, and 2nd place in Jazz.
The Officers were awarded 1st place in Jazz, 1st place in Contemporary, and 1st place in Lyrical. They were named in Officer Winner’s Circle for being in the top 5 highest scoring officer groups.
Several Belles competed in solos, duets, and ensembles. In the 11/12 Solo Division Addie Perkins won 6th place, Laurel Kavanagh 13th place, and Jessica Bowman 14th place. In the 9/10 Solo Division Erica Darrah placed 9th.
Claire Berutti and Peyton Faltys entered a duet and were awarded 5th place. Shivani Chandra, Lauren Dooley, Lauren Teeuws, Ryleigh Malloy, Catherine Brannon, Madisyn Daniel, Claire McCoy, Bethany Sauls, Kelly Alspaw, and Ashley Greene entered a high kick routine in the large ensemble division and won 1st place.
Congratulations to all the Emerald Belles and to Director Melissa Page and Assistant Director Kathryn Dobrow.
To view several of the award-winning performances, click on a link below:
National Champion Award-Winning Team Kick
National Champion Award-Winning Team Lyrical
National Champion Award-Winning Officer Lyrical
National Champion Award-Winning Officer Contemporary
National Champion Award-Winner Officer Jazz
For more information about the Emerald Belles, click here. To read more about MA Dance and the competitions offered, visit their website.
Members of Carroll Jazz selected to All-Region following last weekend’s auditions. Over 100 students from high schools in Frisco, Carrollton, Lake Dallas, Farmers Branch, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake competed at R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton for placement in a spot in one of two 20-member jazz ensembles.
At the end of the day, 15 of Carroll Jazz students placed in one of the two bands. Six Dragons placed in the top group, and will have the opportunity to audition for All-State Jazz next week.
Jazz Ensemble 1 (Will audition for All-State Jazz)
Jazz Ensemble 2
Southlake supports the arts year-round through community concerts, an annual arts festival, and as a sponsor of APEX Arts League. It is now also home to a professional performing arts training center: Epicenter for the Arts opened October 26 at 2100 Greenbriar in North Davis Business Park offering dance, music, art and acting classes for children, teens and adults. The approximate 7,000 square foot facility encompasses four performance training rooms, sound proof music and acting studios, musical theater, student study area, parent viewing areas, administrative offices and The Nest Café & Boutique. In addition, room rentals are available for private parties.
With a mission of “training and equipping this generation of performing artists from the inside out,” Epicenter combines discipleship, professional instruction and elite mentoring programs. Co-founded by Michelle Brogan, along with her husband, Alec, she has been teaching and equipping performing artists since 1990. Brogan has traveled nationwide and abroad performing, teaching and speaking at ministry events. In addition, she has written more than eight original productions that have been performed throughout the country at sold out conventions and ministry events. Brogan currently leads the Dance Revolution, a faith-based dance company that tours nationally, and Ingredients, a professional dance company and trainee program.
Although most performing arts centers are located in urban/downtown areas, Brogan intentionally chose Southlake for multiple reasons.
“Southlake represents a thriving community that cultivates the arts. It is a beautiful city that is great for growing a business,” she states. “There are also amazing faith-based churches and programs that help energize what the mission of the Epicenter is about.”
Currently, Epicenter employs 20 instructors, along with renowned guest teachers and several artist in residence, and has nearly 100 students enrolled from all over the DFW metroplex. Class offerings range from beginning to advanced in all categories:
Registration for 2014 classes can be done online; sign up by January 1 and receive 50 percent discount on first month’s tuition (excludes music classes).
For more information, call 817-778-8828 or visit www.epiarts.com.
The annual Carroll ISD Jazz Band Spring Concert will be Tuesday, May 1 at the Carroll Senior High School Auditorium. The free show begins at 7 p.m. and the community is invited to attend. Organizers will be selling copies of the Jazz Band CD
The audience will enjoy hearing familiar favorites from Duke Ellington and Count Basie performed by the high school bands. The Jazz Orchestra will have a special performance during the evening in which students will play music composed just for them by a University of North Texas professor. Members of the Jazz Orchestra premiered the piece back in January and this will be the first time it is performed at the CSHS campus. The composer, Steve Weist is a multiple Grammy-nominated composer and director of UNT’s One O’Clock Lab Band. Weist also plays the trombone.
A select group of Carroll ISD middle school students will also be featured in the concert. Members of the Dawson Middle School Jazz Band will perform as well as students who participated in Swing School. Swing School is a unique after-school program which pairs incoming younger student musicians with older mentors. The Swing School program just finished it’s second year in Carroll ISD. Watch the following video produced by the Carroll ISD Communications and Marketing Department to learn more about Swing School. Click here to learn more about the Carroll Jazz Band program.
The Carroll Jazz Band is hard at work this spring. Led by director David Lown, members of the Jazz Ensemble took home top honors at the UTA Jazz Festival on Friday, March 2. The students had an outstanding performance, winning the 5-A II division. 
This is the third such win in a row for the Carroll Jazz Ensemble. Ten of the 17 members of the Jazz Ensemble were also awarded Certificates of Excellence for their individual performances. Those students are Harrison Edwards, Brandon Satterfield, Benjamin Scaggs, Cameron Brewer, Reid Appleby, Tanner Deters, Daniel Tubbesing, Christopher Cunningham, Ryan Adler and Ellie Miller. The Jazz Orchestra, which is Carroll’s top group of musicians was last year’s Festival Sweepstakes winner. These students were invited to perform non-competitively as this year’s exhibition band during the awards concert on Friday night.
Lown and his talented group of students are also celebrating a recent addition to the department . At the March 5 Carroll ISD School Board Meeting, Trustees accepted the donation of a baby grand piano. The 1988 Schafer & Sons baby grand piano is valued at $5,000 and will be used by members of the Carroll Senior High Jazz Band.
To learn more about Carroll Jazz and upcoming events visit the group’s website.