FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                              April 5, 2006

HIGH SCHOOLS TO COMPETE IN JAZZ FESTIVAL APRIL 13 AT NORTHWESTERN

            Class 5-A level high schools will be at Northwestern Oklahoma State University Thursday, April 13, for the annual jazz festival sponsored by the department of music. The festival is free and open to the public.

            Broken Arrow, Lawton-Eisenhower and Enid high schools will compete in the show choir division. Broken Arrow and Lawton-Eisenhower will be joined by Owasso High School for the jazz choir competition.

            The festival begins at 1 p.m. in Herod Hall Auditorium with a performance by the show choir from Class 1-A Laverne High School under the direction of 1984 Northwestern graduate Marita Reichenberger. In addition to the show choir appearance, the Laverne jazz band will participate in a clinic with Dr. Kathryn Lindberg, Northwestern director of bands, and the university jazz ensemble.

            The competition will begin at 1:30 p.m. with the show choirs performing at half-hour intervals beginning with Enid and followed by Broken Arrow and Lawton-Eisenhower. The jazz choirs will start at 3 p.m. with Broken Arrow, followed by Lawton-Eisenhower and Owasso, also at half-hour intervals.

            An awards ceremony will begin at 4:30 p.m. with awards for first, second and third places in each division, as well as a sweepstakes trophy for the outstanding choir of the day.

            The format for the jazz festival includes written adjudication followed by a mini-clinic with one of the three judges. The festival is a sanctioned event of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association.

            Randy Johnson is director of the Enid show choir, Mindy Bettridge directs the Owasso jazz choir, Ruiel Doonkeen directs both Broken Arrow choirs and Ben Clifton directs both Lawton-Eisenhower choirs.

            Dr. James Shrader, chair of the music department, is contest manager. For more information, he may be contacted at (580) 327-8591 or by e-mail at jashrader@nwosu.edu.

-NW-

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