About The Festival

Established in 2004 as a non-competitive, all-day jazz immersion event, the Evanston Township High School Jazz Festival hosts nearly 50 middle and high school jazz groups from around the region.  Students of all levels are inspired by professional musicians, enlightened by our clinics, lectures, and master classes, and encouraged to take their playing to the next level.  This educational and cultural jazz festival has earned its distinction by providing the opportunity to showcase local, national, and international artists.  It is the mission of the Evanston Township High School Jazz Festival to provide an important supplement to the students’ pursuit of jazz by highlighting the enduring elements and important innovations of this distinctly American music. 

Festival Events

Student Performances

Jazz ensembles from schools large and small perform in front of an audience to build their performance experience. Our adjudicators and clinicians are world-class professional musicians, university professors and educators that share their expertise with each group during a 30-minute clinic following its performance (45 minute timeslots).  

Clinics & Master Classes (Times Subject to Change)

Play By Ear Workshop - Todd Kelly (Bradley University)
Rhythm Section Clinic - Katie Ernst and "Twin Talk"
Guitar Workshop - Donovan Mixon
Improvisation Clinic - Roosevelt Griffin
Special Lecture/Clinic with Sean Jones and members of his quartet

​Free Noontime Concert

Twin Talk

Ticketed Evening Concert

The Sean Jones Quartet

Music and spirituality have always been fully intertwined in the artistic vision of
trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and activist Sean Jones. Singing and
performing as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, Sean
switched from the drums to the trumpet at the age of 10.

Sean is a musical chameleon and is comfortable in any musical setting no matter what
the role or the genre. He is equally adept in being a member of an ensemble as he is at
being a bandleader. Sean turned a 6-month stint with the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra into an offer from Wynton Marsalis for a permanent position as lead
trumpeter, a post he held from 2004 until 2010. In 2015 Jones was tapped to become a
member of the SFJAZZ Collective. During this time, Sean has managed to keep a core
group of talented musicians together under his leadership forming the foundation for his
groups that have produced and released eight recordings on the Mack Avenue
Records, the latest is his 2017 release Sean Jones: Live from the Jazz Bistro.

Sean has been prominently featured with a number of artists, recording and/or
performing with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath,
Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson and Marcus Miller. Sean
was selected by Miller, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter for their Tribute to Miles tour
in 2011.

He has also performed with the Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Youngstown Symphony
Orchestras as well as Soulful Symphony in Baltimore and in a chamber group at the
Salt Bay Chamber Festival. Sean is also an internationally recognized educator. He was
named the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz at John Hopkins University’s
Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Before coming to Peabody, Sean served as the Chair of
the Brass Department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Additionally, he serves
as Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz.