By Mr Ben Marston, Director of Bands

Last Friday evening the open space in the L.J. Willett Performing Arts Centre was transformed into a jazz club in preparation for one of the most anticipated concerts of the year. The audience was treated to outstanding performances from the 4 Radford College jazz groups and an ensemble featuring some of the Radford College music staff. With an atmosphere of high energy featuring lots of applause and cheers, it was a testimony to the strong sense of community this fantastic evening always delivers.

One of the standout performances came from the Little Big Band, an ensemble made up entirely of students whose first encounter with jazz came only at the start of this year. They should be commended on their excellent work. As always, the Big Band performed at a very high standard and the two small jazz ensembles demonstrated their high level of musicianship by improvising through some challenging repertoire.

This event would not be possible without the performing arts staff working behind the scenes to set up the venue, with many hours going into the preparations. Thank you to everyone who came out to support the young (and a few old) musicians. Congratulations to every one of the performers. It really was an excellent night of jazz music!