SHS choirs take home Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival honors
(Courtesy photo) The Sandpoint High School Chamber Choir was named the AAA High School Area Mic Ensemble winner during the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow on Friday.
(Courtesy photo) The Sandpoint High School Chamber Choir Women were named the AA High School Area Mic Ensemble winner during the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow on Friday.
Two Sandpoint High School choirs took home honors on Feb. 23 at the University of Idaho’s 2018 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
The festival, in its 51st year, features two days of student competitions, workshops and clinics on the University of Idaho campus. More than 4,127 students from 141 elementary, middle and high schools, as well as college and universities, are participating from around the region, including schools from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada.
After a full day of competition, the Sandpoint High School Chamber Choir Women were named the AA High School Area Mic Ensemble winner and the Sandpoint High School Chamber Choir was named the AAA High School Area Mic Ensemble winner.
Both groups are directed by Jon Brownell.
The groups performed at the Young Artist’s Winners Concert Friday evening, competing against ten other schools to be named as the overall sweepstakes winner for the festival.
Top honors went to Sandpoint’s Chamber Choir, who was presented with a rotating trophy for the year and will receive a free entry to the 2019 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
After these jazz ensembles performed for the judges in their early performances of the day, the judges picked the winners of each division. All the winners got to perform one piece on the big stage in the Kibbie Dome at the winner’s concert later that evening, Brownell said in an email.
The judges listen to all of the winning vocal ensembles at this winner’s concert. The judges, then, chose the “Sweepstakes” winners of all the winning ensembles that performed in the winners’ concert.
This group is the winner of all the winners, or the “Sweepstakes” winners,” Brownell said.
The Sandpoint High School Chamber Choir won the prestigious award by singing “People Will Say We’re In Love” by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
In his 29 years of teaching, Brownell said he has been to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival many, many times but has never won “Sweepstakes” until now.
Performances from the Young Artist’s Winners Concert will be available on the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival’s YouTube channel at the conclusion of the festival.