Mission Bay Music
One of the nation’s leading programs for music education. The music program at Mission Bay High School has been inspiring students for the last fifty years. Under the direction of award-winning educator and performer Jean-Paul Balmat, students learn how to perform, arrange, compose and direct, giving them an amazing start to their creative futures.
Leading the way in jazz education, the MBHS Music Program includes three year-long jazz ensembles during the school day. Ensembles like the Preservationists (traditional New Orleans jazz), Swing Choir and Mambo Orchestra give students a cross-cultural experience they will not find anywhere else!It is our belief that students grow through performance.
Mission Bay Music students enter as musicians and leave as professionals, understanding the depth of creativity, dedication and love for their art-form needed to take the next step in their musical journey.
First Series:
2/14 ~ 4/25/19
Second Series:
2/13 ~ 5/21/20
Categories:
Education
Tags:
Work-Study, Music
The Mission Bay Preservationists
The Mission Bay Preservationists is one of the nation’s premier traditional youth jazz bands. The band has been featured at venues throughout San Diego County and California including: House of Blues, Music Box, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Petco Park, Sea World, Ocean Beach Music and Art Festival, San Diego Jazz Party and the Sacramento Jazz Festival. The band’s last four releases have been featured on two of the country’s finest jazz radio stations, (“The Second Line Parade” with host Drew Miller) in San Diego and WWOZ (“The Traditional Hour” with host Keith Hill) in New Orleans.
The band has traveled to New Orleans multiple times to perform at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the iconic Preservation Hall. In 2016 they had the honor of recording with New Orleans’ legend, trumpeter Wendell Brunious, for the their 2016 release “Live in New Orleans”. Their newest album “Louisiana Fairytale” (2017) features an all-star student line-up with guest artist Leonard Patton on vocals. This exciting, versatile group performs early New Orleans Jazz, blues, 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.
Students in the Preservationists are true professionals. They perform regularly on their own and in other performance groups throughout the city. Many of their students accepted into some of the finest musical schools in the country and the program helps foster the next generation of jazz musicians in San Diego!
Yokohama Goodwill Ambassadorial Tour
In April of 2017 the highly acclaimed jazz ensemble traveled to San Diego’s sister city of Yokohama on a goodwill ambassadorial tour to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of sister city relations. The student delegation was joined by SDYSCS Vice President Edward Park and Mission Bay High School Principal Ernie Remillard, and had the privilege of performing in prominent venues across Yokohama City for local citizens, in places such as the Yokohama Landmark Tower Plaza, Osanbashi Pier, Sankei-en Garden’s 800 year-old Tomyoji Hondo and at many historic jazz cafes.
This unique tribute offered an incredible experience that cultivated the cultural depth and professional horizons of our very capable young women and men as they prepared for the next chapter in their adult lives.
Japanese Friendship Garden Concert Series
After the successful 2017 trip a commitment was made to by the SDYSCS and Mission Bay Music to make the Goodwill Ambassadorial Tour a Biennial program.
To help fundraise for the return trip in 2019 Mission Bay Music and the San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society created a unique, student driven, bi-weekly concert series.
Fully produced by the students Mission Bay Music, the Japanese Friendship Garden Concerts series provides San Diegans an exciting new JAZZ program of unique live performances, running from February to April (extended to May in 2020). The series is set against the serene backdrop of the Japanese Friendship Garden within the halls of the elegant Inamori Pavilion.
This bi-weekly concert series provides spectacular performances by established and emerging artists and is designed to provide an unforgettable experience of different sounds and styles of a wide variety of JAZZ genres.
The Japanese Friendship Garden Concerts series is organized and produced by the music students of Mission Bay Music and this one-of-a-kind Work-Study experience gives the students the opportunity to play a role in every aspect of event promotions and production, from the booking of talent to sales/marketing, to sound reinforcement and customer relations.
Japanese Friendship Garden Concert Series Program Reflection
The Mission Bay Music Program work-study gave students the opportunity to produce and curate a professional concert series while learning about Japanese culture through community partnerships.
Students successfully planned the entire concert series, six concerts in 2019 and eight in 2020, programming some of San Diego’s finest musicians to perform. Our concert attendance grew throughout the series as did sponsorship interest, and concession sales. Feedback from community supporters and businesses have all been positive and our patrons are excited to see the program grow and extend.
In San Diego there are no other high school work-studies that offer students the ability to create their own concert series off the school campus. This course teaches business management and promotes arts education, community and economic development.
Students with leadership roles successfully managed their peers in a positive and supportive way where all students felt ownership in this work-study. All students reflected periodically throughout the concert series and at completion we discussed our perceptions, expectations, goals for future projects and created a comprehensive profit and loss analysis to see financial overview and feasibility.
