The Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass Band

Preservation Hall in collaboration with The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation has created a new program for young musicians to learn the essential elements of New Orleans’ venerable brass band tradition.

Open to students between the ages of 9 and 15, The Preservation Hall Junior Jazz and Heritage Brass Band is a free, weekly-meeting class, led by Program Director Carl LeBlanc,guitarist/banjoist and member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

The program will emphasize repertoire, parade marching and dress, instrument technique, and music theory as it relates to traditional brass band music.

Prospective students should be able to read music and play major and minor scales and must own their instrument. We are currently accepting students who play traditional brass band instruments such as trumpet, trombone, clarinet, saxophone, tuba, and drums.

“From the day I was born, I have been in the company of musicians. My father Allan was a tuba player and my mother Sandra played piano. It was their appreciation for New Orleans Jazz that first brought them to New Orleans in 1960. They found a community that embraced family, a unique cultural history and diversity. In 1961, they converted a small art gallery in Preservation Hall, a space where local retired and aging musicians could play; it became a natural extension of New Orleans – it became its own neighborhood. Here, musicians, artists and patrons often brought their children and grandchildren to receive the same love and respect they would amongst their own family members. As a child, I felt like I had dozens of grandparents watching over me, answering my questions, reprimanding me when I was bad and teaching me an appreciation of music and life. We wish to SHARE that sense of community, life and music that is an inseparable part of New Orleans and integral part of Preservation
Hall. “ -Ben Jaffe, Creative Director, Preservation Hall

Parents of students interested in this program should call to schedule an audition. Please contact:

Kate Fogle
outreach@preservationhall.com
(504)522-2841

To make a donation to the program, please click on the “Donate” button below. You will be taken to the Jazz and Heritage Foundation website where you can
donate to the “Preservation Hall Music Initiative”.