Annual Welcome Home Concert Comes to Annandale

From Virginia Music Adventures: Welcome home Virginia Music Adventures’ students from all of VMA’s ensembles! Join us in celebrating students from the Chapel Square Combo (CSC), the Jazz Vocal Ensemble (JVE), the Wakefield Jazz Workshop (WJW), and the Annandale Jazz Ambassadors (AJA). The concert will be held at the Ernst Theater (8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, VA 22003) on May 19, 2017. Doors open at 7:00 pm and show time begins at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10, and VMA offers free admission to students! Tickets available here or at the door.

These 12 – 18 year old musicians from the greater Northern Virginia area regularly engage in cultural good will music performance tours frequently coordinated with the US Department of State. This year, they are thrilled to have traveled to a wide variety of locations including: Mexico, Guatemala, Vietnam, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates, and destinations throughout Virginia doing community outreach.

AJA’s 2017 show presents "100 Years of Big Band Jazz.” With classic hits from the 1920's all the way through the present, AJA tells the story of the development of big band jazz over the past 100 years. They perform works by classic artists such as George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller. They then take you to the middle of the last century with works performed by Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Steely Dan, and Maynard Ferguson, before finishing the story by presenting some of today's contemporary and dynamic artists, including Gordon Goodwin and Snarky Puppy. In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month this April, the Annandale Jazz Ambassadors presented this show all around the world with multiple performances in Ho Chi Minh City, including for the U.S. Department of State at the American Center, for the public in Vung Tau, and at the American School in Dubai. In addition, AJA played at home for Blues Alley's Big Band Jam on the national mall in Washington DC, and at Georgetown University's GU Jazz Fest.

Virginia Music Adventures will also once again bestow the Marshall Maley Percussionist Award, presented to a percussionist each year chosen by VMA’s Board of Directors. The recipient of this award will have demonstrated the percussion skills that long time educator Marshall Maley found so dear including, especially, a joy for life, music, and percussion.

Now in its 38th year, Virginia Music Adventures is a non-profit organization that promotes the preservation of American jazz through performances by exceptional young musicians. VMA teaches young area musicians the rhythms and articulation of jazz in preparation for performances locally and around the world on domestic and international good will tours. Each year, approximately 50 young musicians ranging in age from 11-18 develop skills as performers of jazz and swing-era classics in educational programs during the school year and summer months.

For further information on Virginia Music Adventures’ Programs visit www.VaMusicAdventures.org or contact our office at 571-JAZ-0086.

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