FA Jazz Band earns top rating at district festival

    MILLINOCKET — The Foxcroft Academy Jazz Band earned the highest rating (1) for its performance at the MMEA District Jazz Festival at Stearns High School in Millinocket on Thursday, Feb. 27. The band, which earned 92 out of 100 points and drew some serious praise from the judges and organizers of the festival, will now be competing in the State Jazz Festival at Hampden Academy on March 15.

    Fifteen students competed for Foxcroft: Robert Atherton, Tino Ayala, Devan Baird, Camille Bozzelli, Caleb Buerger, Dexter Canning, Bo Chen, Gabriella Fevens, Freddy Libby, Samuel Libby, Sam Lunn, Anna Sedlackova, Evan Viera, Travis Vincent and Sebastian Zepeda. Of special note were solo performances by Freddy Libby, Vincent, and Zepeda, each of whom received a 1 rating for the solo.
    “All these kids worked really hard, sometimes as much as four hours a day,” said Josh Guthrie, who took over the FA music program in the fall of 2012. “Their hard work paid off, and we’ll now be working even harder for the next two weeks to get ready for the next level.”