Foxboro High School's jazz band working hard to stay one of the best in the country
FOXBORO - The jazz band at Foxboro High School is not just one of the best in Massachusetts, it's one of the best in the country.
The jazz ensemble has been named a finalist in a nationwide competition the last three years, and they're hoping to make it a fourth later this month.
Each year, schools from across the country rehearse and record music from Duke Ellington. Judges then narrow the list down to 15 finalists who will compete at the Essentially Ellington Festival in May in New York City. The finalists will be announced in February.
"It's a national competition that brings in really the best 15 high school jazz bands in the country to play at The House of Swing in New York City with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra," Foxboro's director of bands, Aaron Bush, told WBZ-TV.
"Really to have a program like this it's a community effort and it starts right in kindergarten and goes all the way up to the 12th grade," said Cami Tedoldi, the music director for Foxboro schools.
Foxboro High School's jazz ensemble has been named a finalist in the festival 21 times in the competition's 25-year history. Bush led them to third place finish in 2019 and second in 2022.
"The first year I got there, I freaked out I was a mess," said senior Ian Dorich. "I was playing for people who are basically my jazz heroes."
Dorich has been a part of the ensemble his entire high school career.
"Every year I go I think, 'Oh my gosh, we shouldn't be here because everyone's just amazing,'" he told WBZ.
They're also one of the smallest public high schools to make it there, a testament to the program and its teachers.
Both Bush and Tedoldi were nominated in 2023 as finalists for the Grammy's Music Educator Award.
"Mr. Bush made it to the top 15, I was a quarter finalist. It was pretty cool to have both of us in the same school district be nominated for that award," said Tedoldi.
"It really is a credit to the outstanding program that we have here, and the students, and the staff and the faculty and the parents," Bush told WBZ.
"Mr. Bush always likes to say that music parallels life," said junior Nola Gooch. "That's so true for any friend group that you're in or any big group that you're in. You want to make sure you listen and you're able to collaborate so it's true for the music, but it's also true with the people that you meet."
Foxboro's music program has accumulated a long list of accolades over the years from the jazz ensemble to the choir.
"I'm so proud of our students and our staff. It just brings me so much joy watching them work so hard and be able to have that hard work pay off," said Tedoldi.
The group just submitted their recordings for the 2024 Essentially Ellington Festival. The list of finalists will be released February 14.