All County Jazz

Good Morning, WCSMA Band directors & Jazz Educators,

I hope you are all off to a wonderful start to the new school year. I’m so excited to announce the 2026 WCSMA All-County Jazz Festival. This is my first email to let you all know about the festival dates and other important details. The auditions will be held on Saturday, January 10th, 2026, from 9 am to 12 noon. Every part of the Jazz festival, including the auditions, takes place at Hommocks Middle School, located at 130 Hommocks Road. Larchmont NY 10538.

I have two incredible guest directors lined up for this year! Directing the “A” band will be acclaimed trombonist & composer Ed Neumeister. Ed is an icon in the world of big band and Jazz. He has literally taught and performed all over the world with such names as Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin. Directing our “B” band will be saxophonist/music educator Nathan Childers. Nathan is an acclaimed saxophone player and Yamaha performing artist. He has performed on numerous Broadway shows and has been the lead alto sax in the renowned Birdland Big Band for over ten years. I can’t wait to hear what these two artists can do with Westchester County’s HS Jazz cats!

To continue making things easy for both teachers and students, we have a paperless application process. I am including the link to the Google Form application here:

Jazz Application

Please share this link with your students, but please make sure they only submit the Google Form application once. ANY student who is planning on auditioning needs to fill this out. Additional audition details are discussed further on the Google Form.

THE DEADLINE FOR ALL GOOGLE FORM APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19th

Please discuss the Jazz fest with your HS instrumentalists to see if they might be interested in trying out in January. We love reminding graduating seniors that although NYSSMA is typically not done in 12th grade, the Jazz Festival welcomes and encourages them to audition. The instruments we are looking for include alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, trumpets, trombones, and all rhythm section. (piano, bass, drums, guitar & vibes).

AUDITION INFORMATION:

Date/Time: Saturday, January 10th, 2026 – 9 am-12 pm (Students will sign up for a time slot at the door of their audition room when they arrive)

Location: Hommocks Middle School, 130 Hommocks Road, Larchmont, NY 10538

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS:

A prepared Jazz NYSSMA Solo (Level 5 or 6 ) selected from the CURRENT NYSSMA Manual. (Unlike the current jazz NYSSMA requirement to perform your prepared solo with an existing accompaniment, the prepared solo portion if this audition should be performed unaccompanied.)

Improvisation (with CD or mp3 accompaniment) Level 5 or 6 selected from the CURRENT NYSSMA Manual (students will play melody, a minimum of two improvised choruses, and bring the melody back). All audition rooms will have their own CD player

Sight Reading (given at the audition; typically 8 to 10 bars)

There will be TWO judges in each audition room.

The dates of the entire 2026 festival are as follows. All students who are selected must be available to attend ALL rehearsals and concert dates in order to perform:

Auditions:     Saturday, January 10th (9 am to 12 pm)

Rehearsal #1: Wednesday, February 11th (6:30-9:30 pm)

Rehearsal #2: Tuesday, March 10th (6:30-9:30 pm)

Rehearsal #3: Wednesday, March 11th (6:30-9:30 pm)

Concert: Friday, March 13th (7:30 pm)

LASTLY, I ADDED A SPECIAL BLURP IN THE GOOGLE FORM APPLCATION TO DRAW ATTENTION TO ANY 9TH GRADERS!!!! OUR FEBRUARY 11TH, 2026 (REHEARSAL #1) COINCIDES WITH INTERMEDIATE ALL-COUNTY REHEARSAL #1. ANY AUDITIONING 9TH GRADERS WHO ARE SELECTED FOR AC JAZZ (AND ALREADY SELECTED FOR INTERMEDIATE AC) WILL NEED TO CHOOSE ONE FESTIVAL TO PARTICIPATE IN, AND THE NECESSARY ALTERNATE WILL BE ACTIVATED.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email if you have any questions. I will be sending out other email reminders along the way as we get closer to the December 19th application deadline.

Thanks so much, and I hope you have a great weekend

Jim Mullen

WCSMA Jazz Coordinator

jmullen@mamkschools.org