The Hopkinton Jazz Ensemble took place in the MAJE on Wednesday March 1st 2023.  

The Jazz Ensemble under the leadership of Jeremy Dodge the general music director at the Hopkinton Middle School performed three songs for the three distinguished judges.

The three songs performed by the ensemble were “Easy Money” by Benny Carter, “Trofeo De Bolos” by Craig Skeffington, and the vocal solo “Ain’t Misbehavin’” by Andy Razaf, Thomas Waller and Harry Brooks. 

“It was a real fun time of course I had nerves but I was there to have fun and do my best and whatever award we got is second to the experience that I had” freshman tenor horn Alper Rozy said. 

One Jazz member even shared his favorite part of the performance.  “One of my favorite moments was the solos. Each and every one of the soloists worked really hard and showed off their skills and played amazingly,” junior Privthi Venkatesh said.

Those solos and the performance by the ensemble was enough to award their performance with gold the highest award to achieve in MAJE.

“It felt amazing to get gold.  We received gold my freshman year.  Last year we got silver but got an invite to go to state but it’s different actually getting gold and everyone worked really hard to get there” senior trumpet Brian Gu said.  

“I felt it was an excellent performance and made a lot of really good progress the last few weeks and I believe the best performance is yet to come” Director Jeremy Dodge said.

The accomplishments did not just end there, three members of the jazz band were awarded “MVPs” for their individual performances that night.  Senior Trumpet player Brian Gu, Junior Piano and Bass player Abigail Baskin, and Senior drummer Ryan Hwang. 

Many people echoed the same sentiment about the group as the director Jeremy Dodge “Everyone was having fun together and the energy, emotion, and dedication is keeping jazz alive not only in Hopkinton High School but with young people.”

The Jazz ensemble will now begin moving on to state on Saturday March 25th in Norwood, MA and will be hoping to continue their district’s success.

“Moving on is a testament to the music program, going through covid everything has just been a stand still and moving on is like we are getting out of the mud and represents the hard work we have been doing and playing the music we love and the hard work has gone into what we do” Gu said.