Rio Americano High School’s AM Jazz Ensemble is part of a large and
comprehensive music program. Rio has three full and separate jazz ensembles, of
which AM is the highest level. The AM Jazz Ensemble has been a finalist at the
Essentially Ellington Festival Twelve times, was chosen as winners of the 2019 national
“Perform With Bob Mintzer” competition, and won the Monterey Jazz Festival’s High
School competition seven times since 1987. The band recently hosted and opened a
concert with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and has
performed worldwide on tours of Japan, China, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Australia,
Ireland, Austria, The Czech Republic and South Korea. The band and its members have
won dozens of DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards, and are four-time winners
of the Charles Mingus Festival’s combo category. AM has performed with guest artists
including Donny McCaslin, Ted Nash, Marcus Printup, John Riley, Bob Mintzer, Dave
Pietro and Alison Miller, among others. Alumni of this band have gone on to nearly
every top music school and conservatory, and many alumni are active professional
musicians and educators.
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