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Performance is not only an essential component of our students’ training but our principal vehicle for developing an appreciation for jazz among members of the community at large as well. The most experienced of OJW’s students frequently appear in concerts, festivals, and other community events. The Oaktown Jazz Workshops Performance Ensemble gives concerts at the Alice Arts Center has performed at Festival at the Lake, Oakland A’s and Warrior's games, the Art and Soul Festival and with the Oakland East Bay Symphony and Youth Orchestra. Performance allows students the opportunity to explore the things they have learned in class. Our best known and most widely attended performance program, is the "Groovemobile", a series of free summer concerts in neighborhood parks throughout the greater Oakland area. In this series OJW shares a mobile stage with two or three professional bands, strongly reinforcing our commitment to give young musicians the chance to play alongside professionals. Omar Sosa, E.W. Wainwright, Ledisi, Ed Kelly, John Santos and John Handy have all performed at "Groovemobile" concerts in the last few years. The "Groovemobile" normally plays to an audience of 300 people or more and hopefully makes this music and a part of the local arts community a little more accessible to the public. This series has been funded by See's Candies, The LEF Foundation, California Arts Council, and the City of Oakland. Throughout the year, the students from OJW"s workshops give public concerts at the Alice Arts Center. These performances have often featured original jazz compositions and arrangements by our students, who serve as a positive role models for young people in the audience. Throughout the year, also, they perform at festivals and community events such ad Juneteenth, A's games, Oakland's Art and Soul Festival, and others on the average of twenty performances a year. In the spring of 2000, ojw hosted a day-long family event held at the Woodminster Amphitheater in Oakland's Joachim Miller Park. School bands from around the Bay Area came to Oakland to perform, sharing the stage with headliner Billy Higgins in one of his last public appearances before his untimely death. We are planning to make this festival celebrating youth involvement in jazz an annual event.
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PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS
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