Teachers conferences

The Ellington Down Under program initially began as a teachers’ conference held over 2 days in Brisbane, attracting music teachers from across Australia. The conference was presented by Reggie Thomas (Head of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois University) and Vincent Gardner (lead trombonist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) who spent the two-day conference providing insight into developing a strong sense of culture in the band room, jazz syntax and phraseology, rehearsal techniques and repertoire selection for high school jazz band programs. Upon the success of the 2014 teachers conference, the program extended to delivering the conference again in 2015 as well as workshops with school big bands in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.