A Texas A&M University-Kingsville jazz ensemble received an award at the annual DownBeat Student Music Awards for the second time.
Downbeat magazine, the world’s leading music publication devoted to Jazz, announced its winners in the 44th annual competition.
Jazz Band I was awarded the Outstanding Performance Award in the Graduate College category, where most of the bands have significant percentages of graduate students.
“Winning the award two years in a row shows the depth of talent that we have in our jazz program. It also attests to the talent and commitment of our students to rehearse and perform at the very highest levels of achievement,” said Dr. Paul Hageman, Regents Professor and Director of the School of Music.
“Typically, these are the really big, prestigious jazz schools from all over the U.S. When we won these two awards in this category, we won both times with only one graduate student in the band each time. But, because we had at least one graduate student, we were required to enter the Graduate College category instead of the Undergraduate College category,” he said.
“Our jazz students absolutely LOVE playing and studying jazz music. This award is a reflection of their hard work and commitment, and their love of jazz music. The jazz music faculty all work together in teaching our jazz students, and I think this is also a reflection of our jazz faculty’s teaching abilities and their overall knowledge and love of jazz music.”
The university offers the only Bachelor of Music degree in Performance with an Emphasis in Jazz Studies south of San Antonio. The program has been honored by DownBeat magazine for outstanding performances in 2004, 2010 and 2020. Jazz Band I has performed at the annual Texas Music Education Association convention five times in the last 25 years. The school now has its own state-of-the-art jazz rehearsal hall and a recording studio.
The Downbeat publication can be viewed at https://archive.maherpublications.com/view/618755919/2/.
