Congratulations to the LACHSA Vocal Jazz Ensemble directed by Pat Bass, runners up in the 2020 Next Generation Jazz Festival High School Vocal Ensemble Division. 2020 will mark the ensemble’s 13th appearance at Monterey Jazz Festival.

The 2020 Virtual Next Generation Jazz Festival was a reimagining of the 50-year-old event in the age of COVID-19, taking place on the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, YouTube, and Twitter social media channels. Students were encouraged to post videos of themselves as well and interact with the content, with total engagement reaching 37,987. The overall digital reach of educational videos and interviews from past and present Artists-in-Residence LACHSA alumni Gerald Clayton, John Clayton, Allison Miller, Christian Sands, and other artists’ content was 146,624.

Gerald Clayton, the 2017 Artist-in-Residence, recalled in an introduction video that as a high school student at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, a frequent finalist at the NGJF since 1995, that “the highlight of our year was getting to work up a bunch of material in the big band, drive up to Monterey and compete against some of the best musicians I had ever heard up to that point.”

LACHSA Alum and Artistic Director of 2020 Virtual Next Generation Jazz Festival Gerald Clayton recalls LACHSA.

For more information on the 50th Next Generation Jazz Festival and the first ever Virtual Next Generation Jazz Festival, click here.