Tauranga Jazz Society are very excited about our National Youth Jazz Competition Big Band (NYJC Big Band) initiative. Our goal is to assemble a Big Band of some of the most outstanding young jazz musicians in Aotearoa. The repertoire the band performs will be selected to reflect this standard and will be challenging for every musician involved.
The musical directors for the 2025 NYJC Big Band are Paul Norman and John Page.
The 2025 NYJC Big Band will perform at the competition prizegiving at Baycourt Community & Arts Centre in Tauranga on Wednesday 9 April 2025.
Rehearsals will be held on the evenings of 7 and 8 April at the competition. Students need to be able to attend at least one rehearsal.
Your school does not have to have a group in the competition for your students to be eligible to audition for this ensemble.
Audition process Registrations to audition for the National Youth Jazz Competition Big Band opened today and closes Friday 27 September 2024. Your students register to audition here https://forms.gle/DUKer3oRHxYMZrte7
Registered students will be sent a link to access material (sheet music and audio) for the part they wish to audition for. They also indicate on the form if they wish to be featured as an improvising soloist so they can be sent further material to audition for this as well.
Students will need to submit their audition by providing a link to an unregistered video on a Youtube channel. Auditions will be due by Saturday 7 December (this is a week after NCEA exams finish).
We look forward to receiving your students registrations and to see them raise the bar on their achievement levels!
