Youth Honors Jazz Band
About the Band
Auditions are open to students in grades 6, 7, and 8 who play trumpet, trombone, saxophone, piano, guitar, bass, or drum set. Jazz students in grades 6, 7 and 8 are encouraged to prepare the required solo and audition for the ensemble. The auditioned band meets for three rehearsals and performs at the Seton Hill University Faculty Jazz Concert in the Reichgut Concert Hall in Seton Hill’s Performing Arts Center.
Audition Video Submissions are due by the Thanksgiving Holiday Break (check form for date).
Visit the Forms and Documents page to download the list of required audition solos and to access the audition form.
We are excited to welcome Assistant Professor of Music at Seton Hill University, Clint Bleil, back as Guest Conductor for the 3rd year!
Clint Bleil is a composer and saxophonist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He holds degrees in Music Education and Saxophone Performance from Slippery Rock University, where he studied under Jason Kush, and a master’s degree in Studio Jazz Writing from the University of Miami, studying composition with Gary Lindsay, John Daversa, and Carlos Rafael Rivera.
Clint has received numerous accolades for his compositions and arrangements, including the National Band Association’s Young Jazz Composers Composition Contest (2022), the Jazz Education Network Young Composer Showcase Award (2022), the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award (2021), and the International Jazz Composers SONIC Award (2019). His music has been performed nationwide at the Midwest Clinic, JEN Convention, ISJAC Conference, and more. He has written for ensembles and performers such as the Airmen ofNote, Live From Here with Chris Thile, Patrick Bartley, Bob Reynolds, Benny Benack III, and the Washington Symphony Orchestra.
As a saxophonist, Clint has performed and recorded across a wide range of genres. He has appeared with the Pittsburgh, Butler, and Wheeling Symphony Orchestras, and with top jazz ensembles including the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, Benny Benack III, and the award-winning Frost Concert Jazz Band. He has also performed with legendary pop and rock acts such as The Temptations, Jay and the Americans, Dennis Tufano, and The Shirelles. In the studio, Clint contributed as an additional engineer on John Daversa’s Grammy-winning album American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom.
Clint is an Assistant Professor of Music at Seton Hill University, where he teaches aural theory and music technology, directs saxophone quartets and jazz ensembles, and offers instruction in saxophone and jazz improvisation. He regularly performs in the Pittsburgh area with his modern jazz quartet and a funk/fusion group he co-leads with his brother.
Blues Scales for Jazz Band auditions:
