The award-winning Mission Bay High School Dixie Jazz Band is San Diego's premier traditional youth jazz band. The band has been featured at venues throughout San Diego County and southern California including: House of Blues, Petco Park, Sea World, Dizzy's, Tango Del Rey, Lux Art Institute and the Pacific BeachFest. This exciting, versatile group performs traditional jazz (Dixieland music), New Orleans, and swing. They are sponsored by America's Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society and are one of the featured youth bands at their annual Thanksgiving Jazz Festival.

Among the achievements of the Mission Bay High School Dixie Jazz Band are repeated invitations to America's Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society Thanksgiving Festival and the prestigious Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. This group was the only youth band featured during the most recent Thanksgiving Festival. The band is the only youth band to have been invited back to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee each year for the past seventeen years. In the past years the band has achieved outstanding scores for their extraordinary performances in Sacramento.

In class students learn improvizational techniques, leadership, and discipline in an environment that encourages students to express their ideas and work as a group to achieve common goals. This course prepares students for college level music theory and performance. Students perform at jazz festivals and events that raise money for the program throughout the county and state. Outstanding students have the opportunity to become band leaders, directing the band during rehearsals and at performances. Students are given one-on-one attention to maximize learning in the classroom. Mission Bay High School is a magnet school which any San Diego student can apply too. Contact the office to see if your are eligible. (858) 273-1313 Ext 100)

Through the Jazz Band students will have the opprotunity to:

• Perform at numerous events throughout San Diego city and county
• Perform at two perfessional jazz festivals: Thanksgiving Jazz Fest & Sacramento Jazz Jubilee
• Earn community sevice hours by performing at schools throughout the community
• Be featured on TV and Radio
• Record and produce a professional CD
• Work with true jazz professionals through workshops and other events
• Learn college level jazz theory to prepare students for college level classes.
• Have an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives!!

"As a teacher I am a facilitator of knowledge. I encourage my students to think for themselves and pave their own path. This program has helped shape me into the motivated, hardworking, goal-oriented person I am today. Music is more than just an art form, it's a path to personal expression and growth."

Music Director- JP Balmat