McGill’s Jazz Orchestra performing at the world’s biggest jazz festival
Posted June 27, 2024 8:27 pm.
Last Updated June 28, 2024 1:28 am.
The summer of festivals has just begun in Montreal. The 44th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal is underway. On Thursday night, Montreal’s very own McGill Jazz Orchestra performed.
“We work really hard. I’m very demanding, demanding with a smile though. It’s important for me that we have fun, that we raise constantly the bar of the levels,” said Marianne Trudel, the conductor and director of McGill Jazz Orchestra.
The Orchestra consists of the best students in the jazz program at the Schulich School of Music, a faculty at McGill University.
Trudel is honoured to be given the opportunity to play the Jazz festival with her students.
“It’s exiting for me, it’s exciting for them. To me, for them to have the opportunity to play for quite a few hundreds of people, it’s something else than playing a concert in school,” said Trudel.
Students with the orchestra are feeling the excitement about their performance.
“I have been dreaming since I was a little girl to come on the stage of the Festival de Jazz. And I have been training so much for this opportunity, and I’m really ready to sing and dance maybe for you,” said Charlotte Désilets, a vocalist with the McGill Jazz Orchestra.
“I’m really excited about performing tonight.”
Alex Ambroise, a tenor saxophonist with the Orchestra added, “It was my last year in school so I got to have the tenor 1 position, so lots of soloing, just being in a great band, being right next to the rhythm section with a great band, great leader, so definitely it means a lot.”
The repertoire for the performance will include a program of works by Duke Ellington, Jim McNeely, and Marianne Trudel herself.
“I try for today to present a spectrum of how a big band can sound,” said Trudel.
The festival will run until July 6th, with over 360 shows set to take place. Two-thirds of these shows will be free to attend.
“Any kind of experience they can get is very valuable, and of course, this is one of the biggest jazz festivals in the world, so it’s a privilege.”
