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We have many families represented in EE—brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, and more. Read about how has impacted a few of our “EE Families” below.
Parents Karin Fosberg & Kevin Majeau
Children
Carl (Saxophone)—a freshman at Columbia University, New York, NY, majoring in physics or computer science.
Fiona (Trumpet)—high school junior
Year(s) in EE 2006-2010 (Finalists)
School Garfield High School—Seattle, WA
How did your kids get into jazz?
“I played in a big band in high school but didn’t pursue anything after high school,” notes Kevin. “We introduced the kids to jazz at a young age and they had the tremendous luck of being in a middle school that is one of the feeder schools for Garfield High School. A band director there named Bob Knatt, who retired two years ago, ran a program that instilled a love of jazz and set an incredibly high bar for these kids. That’s why they could come into Garfield and play as well as a huge number of jazz bands around the country.”
How has EE influenced your son/daughter’s lives and where are they now?
“I think EE helped Carl in his academics. He received an Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Soloist Award. That led to him playing with the Seattle Symphony, at Jazz at Lincoln Center and at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. All those things add to life experience and probably didn’t hurt him getting into college. He has always been a bright kid. He was also a swimmer. It led to him learning to budget his time. When he’s doing music, it’s a form of relaxation even though it’s tremendously high energy. It’s not work. It’s pure love.”
What is your best EE memory?
When Wynton played basketball with the Garfield band at midnight after the final EE concert when they finished in First Place. “It was in a rehearsal room at Rose Hall,” says Kevin. “They wheeled in a hoop and in walks Wynton. He can play some serious basketball. All the Jazz At Lincoln Center people are wonderful, putting in a tremendous amount of time to make this the most special event in the world.”
What is special about EE?
“This is my fourth year as a chaperone, a gigantic treat for me,” says Kevin. “I love this music and the people at Jazz at Lincoln Center are incredible. It’s great to be there for the days that aren’t open to the public, just for the kids. They have clinics and Wynton does a question and answer. That’s a special day. I look forward to the Q and A session with Wynton Marsalis.”
How was your community involved in EE?
“Garfield has a parent group that’s incredibly strong,” says Kevin. The jazz band attends many jazz festivals, although, as Kevin notes, “EE is the pinnacle of our year. The band tries to go to Europe every other year. The parent group raises enough to cover half the cost of all the trips. We also offer scholarships to families that can’t afford the costs.” Their fundraisers include poinsettia sales, an auction, concerts, and students playing gigs, which gives the students “a tremendous amount of confidence.”
Do you have any advice for other EE parents?
“You spend a lot of time driving your kids around,” notes Kevin. “What we did was we’d listen to music on CDs. We’d ask Mr. Knatt [our middle school band director] what CDs we should we get. I drove Carl to school for middle school and his first two years of high school. Those were the best times of the day for me and we went through a tremendous amount of music—Ellington, Basie and more. That exposure creates an appreciation and a love for it. You’ve got to listen in addition to playing it. Also, when they’re in middle school, take them to high school concerts. Hear other schools. When you hear other schools, talk about their strengths. Talk about how they’re working as a team instead of as individuals.”
Parents Barbara and Stephen
Children
Joanna (Clarinet)—Boston University, B.S., Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ed.M. Currently Assistant Director of Education at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Jillian (Piano, Clarinet)—Syracuse University, B.S. in Education. Currently an elementary school teacher in New York City.
Year(s) in EE 1997–2010 (Finalist 12 times)
School Foxboro High School—Foxboro, MA
How has EE influenced your son/daughter’s lives and where are they now?
“My original experiences with EE were as a family member and a fan,” says Joanna, who graduated from high school before EE started. “The first year I came (1997) was the first year my dad’s band came in First Place.” She kept coming back to cheer on her dad and sister, missing only two EE Festivals altogether. Joanna worked first as a journalist, writing for the Standard Times of New Bedford, MA, and then for the Boston Globe, writing mainly about education and the arts. When she decided to switch to a career in arts education, she enrolled in a master’s degree program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
“When I was in graduate school, my thesis was about jazz education and learning through jazz,” she says. “A partner and I created a short documentary on the EE Festival of 2005 as part of that thesis. For several months we followed students at various schools and Foxboro was one of them. We followed their experiences in rehearsals leading up to the Festival. There were five students that we highlighted and we followed their journey through EE. We sat in on workshops and interviewed some of the musicians. That experience was how I met Laura Johnson and Erika Floreska and a lot of the people working here (at Jazz at Lincoln Center). A month after we were here in May 2005 for the Festival, I finished my graduate work in June. Timing is everything. That June, Laura Johnson, the founding Education Director, left and Erika became the Education Director and Erika’s EE position became available. When I heard about the position, I applied and went through the interview process and started in July as Education Manager. At first I was working primarily on managing EE and our Band Director Academy in the summer. Now I’m Assistant Director of Education and in addition to those programs I also oversee our Middle School Jazz Academy, our program for New York City students. Managing EE is “a dream come true,” Joanna says. “It suits my skills, being a writer and an organizer. I can apply those to something I’m passionate about—jazz education.” (For her sister Jillian’s views on how influenced her career choice, see the entry for Jillian Massey under ALUMNI.)
What is your best EE memory?
“To see Jillian in Avery Fisher Hall playing this grand piano that you know so many famous people played was kind of an out-of-body experience,” says Barbara.
What is special about EE?
“It was really special to be in New York and have Wynton Marsalis there and it was also amazing to see how efficiently it was run,” explains Barbara. “From the very beginning, there’s excitement the day your band arrives. Each band is announced and you come down the stairs at Jazz at Lincoln Center with everyone cheering and yelling your name. Even I, as a chaperone and a parent walking down the stairs, felt like I was a celebrity. That made it very different from other festivals. Also they name the three finalist bands and you don’t know what the order is and you wait to see whether you’ll be one of the bands that perform at night. That’s different. We don’t usually attend the award ceremonies at other festivals, but all the bands stay around for the final EE concert. It’s an exciting concert whether you’re performing in it or not. It’s exciting to see the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It’s exciting to see the three groups. Then there are all of the awards. Foxboro is always winning some of those awards regardless of where they might place. And then there’s the excitement of figuring out which one will be first even if it’s not you. It’s always exciting.”
How was your community involved in EE?
“Playing the music of Duke Ellington has so much depth and sophistication to it that it helps public school jazz bands establish greater credibility,” says Steve. “If you do watered-down pop tunes, it’s hard to convince anyone that you have a fine arts curriculum. But if you’re doing music of the same artistic caliber as music they’re doing in concert band or orchestra, you bring integrity to the program. That has a lot to do with the community sustaining it over time. Our school department has been very supportive.”
Do you have any advice for other EE parents?
“Encourage them and have them take those lessons,” says Barbara.
Parents Amy and Carl Nathan
Children
Eric (Trumpet)—Yale, B.A. in Music, Indiana University, M.M. in Music Composition. Currently D.M.A. candidate in Music Composition at Cornell.
Noah (Alto Saxophone)—Harvard, A.B. in Government. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in Government at Harvard
Year(s) in EE 2001-2005 (Non-Finalists)
School Mamaroneck High School—Mamaroneck, NY
How has EE influenced your son/daughter’s lives and where are they now?
“We had been regulars for years at Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People and evening concerts when EE first got started. It was right before Eric entered high school,” says Amy. “Eric launched a major lobbying campaign to persuade the high school’s band director to join EE. When at last he succeeded, the change in the band was remarkable, with kids working together in a whole new way. Our band never made Finalist, but the experience was still worthwhile: learning EE music, making the recordings, receiving helpful written feedback from EE judges. Plus, all that lobbying Eric did started him on the path of being an organizer of ensembles and concerts during college and grad school, including creating an ensemble at Yale to play Wynton Marsalis’s ‘Fiddler’s Tale.’”
What is your best EE memory?
In 2005, the band earned honorable mention and had a masterclass in New Yord City with EE clinician Justin DiCioccio. It was fascinating to watch how a few key comments by a clinician can shape up a performance.
How was your community involved in EE?
EE raised the quality of our school’s jazz performances. Noah says the teamwork skills learned in jazz band are life skills that have come into play again and again.
Do you have any advice for other EE parents?
Enjoy learning about jazz with your kids.
Parents Ellen and Joe Rutledge
Children
Rosemary (Alto Saxophone)—Vanderbilt, B.M. in Multiple Woodwinds; New York University, M.A. in Jazz Studies. Currently a freelance jazz musician and Volunteer Coordinator at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Jack (Baritone Saxophone)—Vanderbilt, B.M. in Music, M.B.A. Currently founder of an internet marketing company to help musicians.
Year(s) in EE 1999–2002 (Finalists)
School Roosevelt High School—Seattle, WA
How has influenced your son/daughter’s lives and where are they now?
“Before EE, we barely knew who Duke Ellington was. Then suddenly it was all Ellington all the time,” says Ellen. Joe adds, “The inspiration they got from the whole EE event, the weekend, going to New York—the kids were treated like stars. For Rosemary, that’s where she wanted to do an internship (which she did during graduate school). Jack’s senior college project was on the baritone sax player from Ellington’s band. He came to New York and interviewed Phil Schaap and Joe Temperley. I’m not sure he would have done that if he had not been at EE. But he felt comfortable calling up and saying, ‘Can I interview you?’ He has kept up with a lot of the band members since.” Ellen notes, “The networking is so important.”
What is your best EE memory?
“They gathered all the bands out on the plaza. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra came out of the subway and all the bands together joined in and played ‘C-Jam Blues’,” recalls Joe.
What is special about EE?
“The Jazz at Lincoln Center people treated the students like young adults. They were always treated so well,” says Ellen. “That makes a huge difference in their experience. They were respected.”
How was your community involved in EE?
Ellen explains that before EE, the budget for their jazz band was to buy two charts a year. “Then with EE, all of sudden they got six charts a year for free. EE added a new excitement to the program. Our school didn’t have much money. We were raising money for the trips with bake sales, concerts, a big band dance.” Joe adds, “A lot of the fundraising was from kids playing. They would do gigs for money. The jazz critic of the newspaper wrote about them. It helped promote the public schools.”
Do you have any advice for other EE parents?
“The lessons learned are important in other things—paying attention to detail, listening carefully to other people, learning about music, about culture,” says Ellen.
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