Pennbrook Middle School Jazz Ensemble to Attend Conference in Rhode Island

The Pennbrook Middle School Jazz Ensemble is the only middle school in the country to be invited to perform at the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Conference this weekend in Providence, Rhode Island.

The invitation came after the school’s audition CD was selected among hundreds of recordings from around the country submitted for consideration to the audition committee. The conference is expected to include thousands of musicians, educators, producers, publishers, composers and students at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

In addition to performances by school ensembles, the conference will include workshop sessions, exhibits of music education products and services, special concerts by well-known musicians, and performances by original composition winners.

The Pennbrook Middle School Jazz Ensemble, which is currently made up of 29 members from seventh, eighth and ninth grades, previously performed at national conventions in Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Springfield (Mass.), and Hartford.

The ensemble has also performed four times at the International Association of Jazz Educators Convention in Toronto, California, Texas and Georgia and six times at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Convention. The ensemble has been recognized three times in the middle school big band category of Down Beat Magazine’s annual student music awards.

The group rehearses one evening a week from October to May, and performs frequently at area jazz festivals, school concerts and community events.

Pennbrook Band director Peter Neu has worked at North Penn for 30 years with the middle school jazz ensemble, concert band, marching band, theater pit orchestra, as well as the North Penn High School Columbia Jazz Band and the Marching Knights. Neu received a Grammy Nomination in 2013 for excellence in Music Education, the Citation of Excellence from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and Jazz Director of the Year from the Cavalcade of Bands.