Newtown students and jazz bands earned recognition while attending and participating in the University of New Hampshire’s Clark Terry Jazz Festival on March 14.

The Newtown Middle School Jazz Band earned honorable mention, the Newtown High School Blue Band also earned honorable mention and its musicians Cameron Mitchell and Robbie Laporta earned Outstanding Musician Awards, and the high school’s Gold Band was one of three bands named as “Outstanding” during the festival and its musicians Aimee Alexander, Danny Toby, and Richie Sadlon earned Outstanding Musician Awards.

“You’re the first to ever win an award,” said Newtown Middle School music teacher Jazz Band Director Mark Mahoney, addressing the students on Wednesday, March 25.

The trip to the Clark Terry Jazz Festival is an annual one for the NMS Jazz Band and Newtown High School’s Blue and Gold jazz bands.

“We were the first performance,” said Thomas Hasselberger, a middle school student about the festival.

According to a number of the NMS Jazz Band members, being the first to perform was both less intimidating and more stressful.

“I think it was actually better that we were the first performance, because we didn’t have anything that we felt we needed to top yet, so we were kind of going out their first and setting a level of our comfort level playing,” said NMS student Jacob Clements.

Before performing the students warmed up in the hall, said NMS student Tim McCarthy, who added that the NHS Blue and Gold jazz bands offered their support for the middle school students.

Reflecting on the Clark Terry Jazz Festival, Mr Mahoney said a big “shout out” was needed to thank Andrew Paproski of Nutmeg Cleaners in Danbury for offering to press the middle school’s Jazz Band green ties.

His students, Mr Mahoney said, “played at 100 percent of their ability” during the festival, despite missing multiple rehearsals due to snow.

He also said the high school bands performed well.

“Blue Band played the best I have ever heard them,” said Mr Mahoney. “They achieved a level that they never have before.”

The Clark Terry Jazz Festival was the latest festival the NHS Blue and Gold Jazz bands performed in, but the bands also participated in two other festivals recently.

The NHS Gold Band finished sixth out of 93 bands after competing in the Berklee Jazz Festival in Boston on January 31, according to NHS band Director Kurt Eckhardt, and trumpeter Aimee Alexander was named as one of the outstanding performers of that festival.

The Gold Band went on to earn third place at the Darien Jazz Festival on March 6, with tenor saxophonist Richie Sadlon earning the Outstanding Musicianship Award.

“The bands played great at these festivals,” said Mr Eckhardt. “Newtown should be very proud of these young musicians.”

NHS senior Aimee Alexander said, “All the bands were obviously fantastic,” about attending the University of New Hampshire’s Clark Terry Jazz Festival.

While Aimee, who won an Outstanding Musician Award at the Clark Terry Jazz Festival and was named as an outstanding performer during the Berklee Jazz Festival in Boston, did not participate in the middle school’s jazz band when in middle school, she said Newtown’s jazz band program is “really good” and allows students to grow.