These two fine young adults, with their impeccable fashion sense, are members of one of the Highland High School Jazz bands. (Matt plays the trombone and Lauren the saxophone. Both also play other instruments in the Marching Band and the Symphonic Band.)

The Highland High School Band department is sponsoring the First Annual Highland Jazz Festival on March 26 – 27, 2010. This is going to be an amazing event for local and regional high school and college bands as well as fans of jazz music.

Two premier jazz artists, 13 time Grammy nominee Bob Mintzer and 6 time Jazz Journalists Association Trombonist of the Year Wycliffe Gordon, will be playing concerts available to the public.

The kids will get to attend workshops lead by several world class musicians and college music professors. It promises to be a great program for young adults at all levels.

Such a wonderful event requires lots of planning, and unfortunately, lots of money. Bringing award winning artists and some of the best clinicians in the country isn’t cheap. Phoenix Real Estate Guy and Thompson’s Realty are sponsoring Matt and Lauren’s chairs, but that’s not even remotely enough.

So yeah, I’m asking folks to consider donating to the cause. The music program in the local (and I suspect elsewhere) schools took significant budget cuts. If we want to get kids the music and arts education they need, we’re going to have to pony up the bucks. I honestly can’t think of any better cause than our children’s education.

The Highland Jazz Festival has different sponsorship levels for individual, business, corporate and institutional donations. And they need donations. As the Arizona Republic recently reported, community support for the Jazz Festival is lacking.

This is a great opportunity for local, state and national businesses and organizations to support a terrific program that will benefit high school music programs across the Valley.

We need people to step up. For more info, go to the Jazz Festival page or Republic article.

Here’s some of the kids at Jazz Band practice. The one on the left is mine!

Photo credit: Michael Schennum/The Arizona Republic

More photos from the Arizona Republic

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