MDI Jazz Musicians Recognized By Portland Press Herald at Jazz Festival

When the Southern Maine newspapers recognize a High School in Northern or Downeast Maine you know something special has happened! Such was the case this Friday and Saturday when MDI sent their jazz musicians to the Maine Music Educator Association's Jazz Festival at South Portland High School and the Portland Press Herald wrote an article featuring MDI's musicians.

Thanks to MDI's Michael Remy for the information.

The MMEA Jazz Festival is no longer competitive. Instead, “medals” are awarded to correlate with the judge’s scores. Not all groups receive medals and the scoring standard is quite high. All of MDI's  groups received recognition!

• Big Group - Gold
• Nonet - Honorable Mention
• Ocean’s Mist and the Long Road to Aquatic Tranquility - Bronze
• Pulp - Honorable Mention
• Plop - Bronze
• Patti - Bronze
• Department of Justice - Bronze

The MMEA also recognizes 4 musicians in each division for outstanding musicianship and 1 musician per division for overall best musicianship, known as the ‘Dale Huff Award’.

Recognized were

• B multi combo: Alain Zhang, Jane Pope, Jacob Lurvey, Sarah Knox (Dale Huff Award)
• A multi combo: Adam Christianson
• Division 2 combo: Dawson Burnett
• Multi Jazz Band: Camden Garland
• Division 3 Big Band: Dawson Burnett (Dale Huff Award)