Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant

I am a Duluth Native I went to East High school along with UMD. I am organizing and MCing the events along with performing in a few that are taking place. My biggest inspiration going through the programs has been seeing the incredible live music that has come through Duluth. I have had the opportunity to sub with all the Professional Big Bands performaning. The Big Time Orchestra is one of the primary bands involved in the festival. The 19 members of the Big Time Jazz Orchestra are the finest big band performers in the region, are of all occupations, and include college and high school music teachers, retired military band musicians, and Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra members. In its history the band has now donated performances for over 100 benefit concerts for a multitude of causes in addition to concerts for area school jazz bands. The average band member has been with the band for approximately 25 years of its 32 year existence. We will be selling tickets as a way to track the audience that we reach. We can also take attendance of the students who are involved and using that as a measurable outcome. We will also be in contact and receive feedback from directors and musicians involved in the series to see how we impacted the students and community. We will survey the musicians on the fluidity of the series and see what adjustments can be made for the future along with how they thought the audience attendance and reaction was.