An incredible weekend at the 2026 California Jazz Championships! Jazz Quintet was selected for the finals completion and took 1st place in the high school combo division; Jazz Workshop won the Apprentice Band division for the second year in a row; Jazz Ensemble won the entire festival for a THIRD CONSECUTIVE, taking first place in the day time prelims and finals competition. This caps off an incredible festival season for our jazz bands. Bravo and congratulations to our students on this monumental achievement!
THE Vanguard Jazz Orchestra performs at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater on Wednesday, April 22nd. The event starts at 7:00pm with opening performances by Korematsu Middle School, Richmond, and El Cerrito High Schools. Tickets are only $40. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear the VJO outside of New York! Tickets available at /concerts
Congratulations to our Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band for earning a Unanimous Superior rating at the CMEA Band and Orchestra festival this weekend! Huge shout out to parents and students that helped run the festival. Another successful festival at EC in the books!
Congratulations to our Wind Ensemble on a fantastic performance last night at SJSU! It was an honor to share the stage with the outstanding SJSU Wind Ensemble! We are beyond thankful to Dr. David Vickerman for the invitation to perform and to his students for their hospitality.
If you’d like to hear the concert you can do so here: /live/Wp94PlRpD0g?si=Y4vbrZ8J_0DqAbgi
A fantastic performance this morning at the Sonoma State Invitational by our Wind Ensemble in beautiful Weill Hall. We were extremely fortunate to have Craig Kirchhoff, professor emeritus from the University of Minnesota, for our clinic following the performance. Next Wind Ensemble performance is this coming Wednesday at SJSU. March (band) madness continues!
We’re on i5 on our way home from a fantastic trip to SoCal with the Jazz Ensemble and Workshop. The weekend included an exchange with the Downey HS on Friday, performances at the Western States Jazz Festival at Upland HS (one of the largest festivals in SoCal) on Saturday, and backstage recording workshops at Disneyland on Sunday. How’d it go at the festival? Jazz Ensemble took 1st place in the high school “heavy” division, Jazz Workshop took 1st place in the advanced division and received the two highest scores at the festival! We are thankful to our hosts at Downey and Upland for their hospitality. Congrats once again to our students on their continued success!
Congratulations to our Jazz Ensemble, Workshop, and Quintet for their outstanding performances yesterday at the 2026 Campana Jazz Festival in Pleasanton! The groups took 1st place in 3 out of the 4 high school divisions in addition to countless outstanding musician awards presented to individual musicians. Bravo to all of our students for another successful outing!
A hat trick at this weekend’s CMEA Jazz Festival! All three ECHS jazz bands earned the distinguished “Unanimous Superior” award at the festival, which was hosted by ECHS. We’re proud of all the hard work the students have put in for this outstanding achievement! Also, a heartfelt thanks to the countless student and parent volunteers that helped make this an outstanding festival for everyone that attended.
A fantastic Saturday at the Folsom Jazz Festival! El Cerrito groups were on fire and placed in their divisions (listed below). Jazz Ensemble was among the top five scoring bands at the festival and selected for the finals competition. For the third year in a row, Jazz Ensemble won the finals competition and sweepstakes! The three-peat is unprecedented and quite an achievement for our students and our program. Additionally, about 20 students received individual outstanding musician awards from the adjudicators.
Here’s how our groups placed:
➲ 𝐉𝐚𝐳𝐳 𝐄𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞: 1st place in the AAA division + Sweepstakes winners.
➲ 𝐉𝐚𝐳𝐳 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩: 2nd place, BB division.
➲ 𝐉𝐚𝐳𝐳 𝐋𝐚𝐛: 2nd place, B division.
➲ 𝐉𝐚𝐳𝐳 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐭: 3rd place, high school combos.
Congratulations to all lf the students that performed yesterday, we’re all proud of you!
A huge thanks to everyone that supported our Play-a-Thon yesterday! An incredible day of music for our community at every level from our elementary and middle school feeders, high school ensembles, guest clinicians, to our alumni headliner. We will continue to accept donations for the event through the end of the month. If you haven’t already, please consider making a donation at /play-a-thon
Great concert last night Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, and Concert Band! We are extremely thankful for the 50 alumni that came back and performed Sleigh Ride with Wind Ensemble — thank you for keeping the tradition alive and strong!
A fantastic concert tonight with the Barker College Wind Symphony and Jazz Orchestra from Sydney, Australia! Our Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble shared the stage with the groups after a fun exchange this afternoon. Wishing them the best of luck on the rest of their tour!
