The Pennsbury High
School concert jazz
band performed in the
Monterey Jazz
Festival in California.

By RACHEL CANELLI
COURIER TIMES

   For more than 40 years, Pennsbury students have been painting the town — and all that jazz.
   The Pennsbury jazz program, specifically the high school concert jazz band, has a rich tradition of dedication and international recognition, said director Frank Mazzeo.
   Next week, the district will celebrate that history with a free concert Thursday night at the Pennsbury High School east campus, administrators said. The event is the 40th annual Jazz at Pennsbury.
“It’s a special program with a history of dedicated directors and supportive parents and administrators,” said Mazzeo, who’s in his 21st year of teaching music.

   The program was founded in 1959, according to Mazzeo.

   Since then, the high school concert jazz band has earned acclaim from around the world, he said.
   The Pennsbury jazz lab band also draws from ninth- through 12th-graders. It’s considered a training ground to prepare students who want to audition for the concert band, Mazzeo said.
   That group is the only American high school jazz ensemble to perform in the Republic of China, said Mazzeo.
   The student musicians have also played in Switzerland and Canada and recently returned from placing fourth in the Monterey Jazz Festival in California, he said.
   There, the 23-piece band competed against 11 other jazz bands from schools in California, Oregon, Utah and fflinois. Some of those academies’ curriculums focused on music. Pennsbury was the only jazz band from the East Coast, officials said.
   Their secret is simple:
practice, Mazzeo said. The teens rehearse six days a week — three hours after school Monday through Friday and sections meet over the weekend.
   “Everyone wants to keep that tradition up,” said 18- year-old Eric Dorr, a trumpet player and the band’s student director. “It takes a lot of dedication. If it’s snowing, we still rehearse.
What’s most rewarding is that this is an extracurricular [activity]. We’re well- rounded.”
   Next year, the marching and jazz bands are invited to entertain in Hong Kong. On the last day of the Hong Kong Sevens, which is a seven-day rugby tournament, the students will play for a crowd of
40,000.
   Then, the marching band’s claim to fame will be performing in all four Disney amusement parks.
   “It’s challenging,” said Kayla Chapman, a senior bass trombone player and one of only three girls in the band. “We work harder than anyone else, even students who attend schools only for music.”
   And that tradition is only going to continue. Mazzeo said he’s starting to see Pennsbury graduate instrumentalists coming back to see their children — and even grandchildren — perform.