The Pearson High School Jazz Band is excited to announce that they will be hosting the Curuba Jazz Band from Germany in a combined concert on Tuesday, 4 October 2016, at 19h00 in the NMU South Campus Auditorium. If the university is still closed on Tuesday, the concert will move to Pearson High School Hall.
The Curuba Jazz Orchestra is a young talented big band from Brühl, nearby Cologne, Germany. It is one of the big bands of the School of Music and Arts of the City of Brühl, which developed from the former junior big band of this school. Conducted by Elmar Frey and Michael Scheuermann, the 20 young musicians between the age of 16 and 26, mainly university students, play pretty much everything there is to play for a classic big band: from Neil Hefti, Count Basie and Sammy Nestico over Maynard Ferguson, Bob Mintzer and Peter Herbolzheimer all the way to Gordon Goodwin. Their repertoire is not limited to jazz. Modern pop and Latin songs are equally as important to this big band as new musical works, which are specifically arranged or composed for and dedicated to the Curuba Jazz Orchestra, such as the “Curuba Jazz Suite” – a contemporary piece of jazz composed by the young music student and award winner of the German music committee, Glenn Großmann. The Curuba Jazz Orchestra represents the artistic and educational work of the School of Arts and Music of the City of Brühl at many events at the highest level.
The history of the Curuba Jazz Orchestra started when the band won the state championship of a nation-wide big band competition in their home state for the first time in 2009. In the past seven years, the band won the same competition four consecutive times and was awarded prizes at the national level of this competition four times as well. Moreover, numerous of the band’s soloists were awarded special prizes including performances with popular professional big bands.
On January 30, 2015, the Curuba Jazz Orchestra was chosen as the winner of the WDR jazz award 2015, which was awarded to the band at a mutual concert with the WDR big band at the concert hall of the City of Dortmund – the band’s so far greatest achievement.
On November 26, 2015, the Curuba Jazz Orchestra released their first CD entitled “Curuba Jazz Kassette”.
The 2016 South Africa tour is the band’s first concert tour abroad. Two of the band members have links to South Africa, which is why the band chose this country as the destination for their first tour. During this special trip the band is going to play concerts in Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
The Pearson High School Jazz Band, conducted by teacher, Leon Piron, was formed to provide a challenging orchestral experience for advanced music learners. To qualify for the Jazz Band, learners need to achieve a Grade 6 music level, or higher, in their external music examinations. The Jazz Band has received various gold awards at local eisteddfods, is a hit at the school’s annual Music Celebrationconcert, and is regularly invited to play at functions for charity events. In 2014 they were invited to play as guest artists at the Mr and Ms NMMU pageant.
Tickets are available from the school at R50.00 and at the door.
Alan Straton
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