Jazz Students to Perform in Switzerland
NOCCA Jazz Students to Perform at World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Switzerland
The NOCCA Jazz Ensemble is honored to perform at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2014 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland on behalf of Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. The trio consists of high school senior students Justis Midura on bass; Thomas Glass on drums; and junior John Michael Bradford on horn.
The students have honed their jazz performance skills with pre-professional arts training from the talented faculty at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. World-renowned Jazz musicians Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., and Terence Blanchard are only a few NOCCA graduates who can attest to the extraordinary educational opportunity NOCCA provides the children of Louisiana. Also, the NOCCA Jazz Ensemble will be the opening act for alum Terence Blanchard at the event, showing the strong influence NOCCA has had on education over the last 40 years.
The students will be accompanied by NOCCA President and CEO, Kyle Wedberg, and NOCCA Jazz Faculty Member, Khari Lee who will also perform with the students.
“We were honored to be asked to by Zurich Insurance Group to be part of an international event like the World Economic Forum,” stated NOCCA President|CEO Kyle Wedberg. “We are grateful for the opportunity to have NOCCA students perform with a distinguished Alumnus like Terence Blanchard for global leaders. And we are proud to represent New Orleans and Louisiana through music.”
About NOCCA
The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts is a regional, pre-professional arts training center that offers students intensive instruction in culinary arts, dance, media arts: filmmaking & audio production, music (classical, jazz, vocal), theatre arts (drama, musical theatre, theatre design), visual arts, and creative writing, while demanding simultaneous academic excellence.
NOCCA was founded in 1973 by a diverse coalition of artists, educators, business leaders, and community activists who saw the need for an institution devoted to our region’s burgeoning young talent.
For more information about NOCCA, visit http://www.nocca.com.
About NOCCA Jazz Ensemble
John Michael Bradford is a junior at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He has played trumpet for seven years. Among many other awards, he has received full scholarships to the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp, Skidmore Jazz Camp, Seeking Satchmo Competition Grand Prize; was chosen by Donald Harrison to represent the Tipitina’s Interns in Japan; and was selected by the Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp as a student ambassador for a trip to Cuba.
Justis Midura is a senior at Benjamin Franklin High School and receives half-day arts training at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He plays upright and electric bass. Most notably, he received a scholarship to attend a Jazz workshop hosted by the Manhattan School of Music in 2012 in Amsterdam. He plans to attend the University of Virginia and major in Systems Engineering.
Thomas Glass is a senior at East Jefferson High School and receives half-day arts training at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He is a drummer and recently attended a gospel mission trip hosted by Coro Gap in Italy. He plans to attend Berklee College of Music.
About NOCCA Jazz Faculty Member Khari Lee
Saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer Khari Allen Lee earned his B.S. in Music Education from Auburn University in 2002 and went on to attend the Berklee College of Music as a scholarship recipient. In the spring of 2005, Lee graduated from Berklee with an Artist Diploma in Professional Music and was chosen to become a member of the University of New Orleans Louis Armstrong Quintet. He earned his Masters of Music in 2007 and continued to work in the historic Crescent City as an active, versatile performer and passionate educator with groups and artists including Delfeayo Marsalis, the Treme Brass Band, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Irvin Mayfield, and as a member of faculty at Tulane University and the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. After a two-year term as Director of Music at the International School Moshi, Tanzania, East Africa at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Lee has readily and resolutely returned to New Orleans, the faculty of the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and the rich creative atmosphere of one of the world’s most original and inspired cities to continue his soulful work.
About NOCCA President and CEO Kyle Wedberg
Kyle has a professional career that has focused on education and public service. Kyle has worked with City Year to help lead new site development and the start of City Year Louisiana (where he fell in love with New Orleans), City Year Johannesburg, and City Year Los Angeles. Kyle embraced the opportunity to move to New Orleans and took a leadership role at the Recovery School District where he served as Chief Administrative Officer. While working at the RSD, Kyle visited and was inspired by NOCCA-the performing and visual arts high school for the State of Louisiana- where he now has the privilege to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer. In his spare time he enjoys being with his wife Michelle and son Waylon above all else; traveling the state; and experiencing the arts, sights, sounds, food, culture, and sports (especially the Saints) of New Orleans and Louisiana. He has a BA from St. Olaf College and a MPA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.