The 2005 District 6 Jazz Festival will once again be held on the campus of Penn State Altoona.
However, this year’s festival will feature a new twist – a jazz choir.
According to Tyrone Area High School band director Kris Laird, last year was the first time PMEA included a jazz choir as part of the All-State Festival at its annual conference. Since then, many districts have been promoting jazz choir to their students. District 6 PMEA will be one of the first districts in the state of Pennsylvania to offer such an opportunity to its students as part of its already successful jazz festival.
This year, Tyrone will be represented by five students in the jazz bands as well as five students in the newly-formed jazz choir.
The band students performing are Doug Conrad, tenor sax and Zac Yeaton, trombone, both playing in the Red Jazz Band; Tim Stibitz, alto sax and Nathan Barber, trumpet, both performing with the Yellow Jazz Band; and Zach Zolten, trombone, performing with the Blue Jazz Band.
The Tyrone choral students singing with the jazz choir will be: Mary Raffetto, Ashley Turnbaugh, Cynda Ormsby, Evan Kost and Josh Shaffer.
A free public concert will be held in the Community Arts Center, Altoona Campus today at 2 p.m.
