On Jan. 15, 2026, students from the LHS Jazz Lab Band and ensemble performed in the auditorium for their annual Jazz festival where they were joined by the rising performers of Highland and Oak Grove middle school.
“I think the students played really well. Concerts are always sort of a culmination of the hard work that they’ve put in throughout the last eight weeks or so,” said Jazz ensemble director Matthew Karnstedt. “That’s kind of the beauty of music, that you can’t take it back but I think they played everything really well. They had really good energy tonight.”
Oak Grove’s jazz band opened the program with “Green Onions” by Jones and Cropper followed by “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” by Fred Fisher. Both songs featured soloists on various instruments like Karan Nalagandla on the tenor saxophone, Rohan Uttam on bass guitar, and Melvin Cui on piano.
Following the Eagle’s band was the Highland Jazz Band 1 playing “Escape Route”by Doug Beach, a high energy piece with driving rhythms, and “El Rey Del Sol” by Gregory Yasinitsky, a Latin jazz piece that energized the crowd and had many moving along to the beat.
Next in the show was the LHS Jazz lab band who performed four songs, “Fly Me to the Moon” by Bart Howard, “Come Sunday” by Duke Ellington, “Caravan” by Ellington, Mills, and Tizol and “Blue Monk” a blues piece which was written by Thelonius Monk and arranged by the Jazz Lab band. The band added parts under the melody, solos and a tag at the end of the piece.
The LHS Jazz Ensemble closed out the night with their own set of four songs “Through the Eyes of a Child” by Jeff Jarvis, “Sparkly Eyes” by Adam Meckler, “Jada” by Bob Carleton and “Jody Grind” by Horace Silver. The ensemble invited guest artist, Dr. Chris Madsen, to collaborate with LHS musicians. Madsen is an area native, joining the ensemble on their four pieces on the saxophone and trading off on solos with senior saxophone player, Anna Garippo. Garippo has played the saxophone for eight years and has been a jazz player for six years.
“I feel pretty confident about my playing now, and the solo section with Madsen wasn’t a technically challenging solo part,” said Garippo “It was only a C chord, but sometimes it still bothers me to get up on stage and just play whatever comes out on concert night and Madsen is such an incredible player, and it was such an amazing opportunity to be able to to trade back and forth with him.”
The festival offered an opportunity for middle school jazz students to work with the high schoolers and to get a look into their future in the LHS music department as they begin to think about their transition to high school.
“I think [festivals are] really important because they give the middle school kids an idea of what it looks and feels like to be in a high school music program,” said Karnstedt “Giving students an opportunity to hear from each other and to work with someone that’s a world class professional musician, which is what we do at all of our different middle school festivals, I think that’s a really important thing in the growth of a musician.”
Although this is Garippo’s last year with the Jazz ensemble she’s excited for the musicians that will come after her.
“It’s hard at the beginning when you’re in a band with younger, newer, less experienced players, but that won’t be like that for long,” said Garippo “You’ll make so many new friends, and you’ll have an amazing time. You’ll meet so many new people, and at some point you’re gonna blink and you’ll be this amazing player if you put in the work.”
The LHS jazz lab band and ensemble will return to the stage on Wednesday, March 15th for their spring jazz concert.
