In 2025 the Tucson Jazz Music Foundation sponsored most of the Tucson Jazz Institute’s students travel/lodging/meal expenses to three jazz festivals starting with Las Vegas in January (Essentially Ellington Regional Festival/UNLV), followed by Flagstaff in February (NAU Jazz Festival), and lastly to NYC in May to participate in the Essentially Ellington High School Big Band Festival and Competition held at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
$1564 TJI Individual Travel Scholarships, $1700 Sponsored Group Education at Jazz Festivals/Participation Fees, S21,831 Sponsored Group Travel, $12,400 Sponsored Group Lodging, $797 Sponsored Group Meals
$38,293 was invested in TJI students thanks to your donations. You helped make this happen:
Jaxon Hirsh/bari, Zeke Hirsh/bass and Daniel Nguyen/multi-instrumentalist received scholarship offers to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Daniel is there now and taking advantage of all the opportunities available to him. Jaxon received a full scholarship to The New School in NYC and involved with EE/Jazz Academy, and his brother Zeke hopes to join him next year. TJI is happy to have Zeke for one more year.
In addition to the scholarship offers, these three received OUTSTANDING SOLOIST AWARDS from Wynton Marsalis. At this time we only have stills from a video captured by Henry Nguyen, Daniel’s dad. We’re hoping the staff at Essentially Ellington may find photos. The awards ceremony was not broadcast (we weren’t able to capture screenshots) and was at the Metropolitan Opera House this time – a first for this event / 30th anniversary. They needed more space to accommodate 30 bands versus the usual 15. Photos: Zeke Hirsh, David Nguyen (leather jacket), Jaxon Hirsh.
Here are a few pictures taken in NYC. They used the trains/subways to commute to jazz clubs, took in the sights, and made the most of their free time. Some even went shopping and purchased new instruments!
To view their actual performance at EE, you may see it here on YouTube, as well as all the other bands. Below are a few screenshots from the EE broadcast. All of them are on the TJI Facebook page.
