The ensemble scored the highest of any large ensemble from 200 schools across the U.S.
Escorted into the Burlington Township High School parking lot by the celebratory sirens of fire trucks and police vehicles, the decorated Jazz Nouveau returned home from the 50th annual Berklee High School Jazz Festival on Feb. 11 with yet another first-place national title.
This year’s win marks the second in a row for the Jazz Nouveau, a 28-member a cappella jazz vocal ensemble at BTHS, making them the first in the top-level V1 division to ever clinch back-to-back national championships. The group also scored a near-perfect 295 out of 300 points, the highest score of any large ensemble out of the 5,000 participants from more than 200 high schools.
“The Falcon is not only flying high, it flew all the way to Boston and back!” district public information officer Liz Scott said. “We are so proud of what you did and how you represented Burlington Township.”
The Berklee High School Jazz Festival, held every year in Boston, is the largest of its kind in the United States. Big bands, combos and vocal jazz ensembles perform and compete throughout the daylong competition, and all ensembles are adjudicated by a panel of faculty from Berklee College of Music. Top-ranked ensembles are awarded partial scholarships to the college’s five-week summer performance program.
Senior Darian Lambert was recognized for the Judge’s Choice Award, which is given to the best solo performer in a given group.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all, it’s really crazy. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do anything without this group,” Lambert said of her award. “They’re the most supportive people — I’m so happy to call them family and I love them.”
Thanking Burlington Township School District’s administrators and group leaders Emma Rulli and Jordyn Gross, Nouveau director Steve Bishop said he was again elated by the outcome of their participation in the festival. He added it was remarkable to watch the group, which trains diligently and performs without a conductor, continue to grow and improve even in the four weeks leading up to the competition.
“This is a group that has grown the most I have ever seen. I don’t think I will ever be fortunate enough to have a group like this again, that takes what they do so seriously and pushes themselves,” said Bishop, a former Broadway director who started the ensemble eight years ago. “Our mantra this time around was simply this: It’s more important to be us than to win. That’s how we started, and that’s how we’re always going to continue. We have a very unique, novel sound, no one does things quite like we do, and they have all embraced that. I’m so proud of this program and where is has gone in the past few years.”
To see the Jazz Nouveau’s return-home performance, visit facebook.com/BurlTwpSch.
