Jazz Choir wins 2nd Place at Pleasant Hill

On April 19th the Delphian School Jazz Choir participated in the 33rd annual Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival and achieved 2nd place honors in their division.

The Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival is a middle and high school vocal and instrumental jazz festival. With over 1000 students from more than 40 different schools participating, it is the largest school jazz festival in the state. Delphian School students competed in the Vocal Jazz, Close Proximity Microphone division for schools with enrollments less than 1000 students. Schools perform in a preliminary round and are adjudicated and given an on-stage clinic by one of the adjudicators. The top two schools in each division qualify for the finals.

The Delphian School performed three songs in the preliminary round. The Delphian School program opened with "Frim Fram Sauce" featuring a scat solo by Curtis Pfeiffer and a piano and bass solo by Jeremy Moll and Brendan Delaney respectively. The group then performed "Try to Remember," a capella ballad featuring solos by Gloria Chan and James Clarizio. The program closed with a funk arrangement of the jazz standard, "St. Thomas," that featured vocal solos by Coral Kahane, Katie Howland and Jeremy Moll, and a drum solo from Guy Eskinazi. At the end of this round, the Delphian School was chosen to participate in the finals.

In the evening finals the choir performed "Try to Remember" and then sang "L-O-V-E" arranged by senior Jeremy Moll. Jeremy sang the lead and played the piano, with a vocal "trumpet" solo by Tony Holesworth.

The jazz choir from Brookings-Harbor, the other participant in the finals in the Delphian School's division, won first place honors with a strong performance. The Delphian School students were elated with the 2nd place honor. As the smallest high school in the division, they showed that with hard work and a professional attitude, they could sing with "the big boys."