Honor Jazz Festival Trombone Callbacks: If you have good trombone players who are still interestd in trying out for the 2011 Honor Jazz Festival in London please submit an audition in MP3 format on or before Friday June 3. Please send your auditions directly to Georgia Bassett. - posted 16 May, 2011

Audition Information

Online Acceptance/Registration/Housing/Arrival & Departure
The Online Registration site for HJF is now open

Images from "Jazz in Japan" | Images - ACS Hillingdon
Images International School of Luxembourg | Images - Marymount International School
Images from "Great Wall Jazz" | Images - ASL

About The Festival

October 2011 will see the annual Honor Jazz Festival return to its birthplace and visit the American School of London. AMIS is proud to sponsor this festival which is designed to support our finest High School jazz musicians and to give them the opportunity to learn from jazz musicians and teachers while working with like-minded fellow jazz musicians. As in last year’s festival, this year there will also be the opportunity for vocalists to audition. These vocal auditions are open to all singers, not just instrumentalists who also sing. Unlike last year's festival, there will not be a Jazz Skills Workshop.

Our host will be Gordon Graham. The guest conductors are David Beckstead for the Big Band and Joseph Granzow for the Vocal Jazz Ensemble.  Combo Leaders are yet to be confirmed.

The new audition instructions are available in the Audition section of the AMIS web site. These will take the place of the instructions on the version 5 CD of AMIS audition materials. Please download and use use the Set C materials newly revised by Jon Hodge and Rick Hein from here.

The inaugural festival was held at The American School in London in October 1997 and was hosted and directed by Gordon Murphy of The American School in London. Festivals were held at The American School of the Hague hosted by Jim Yarnell; The American Community School - Hillingdon hosted by Rick Hein, David Harrison and Kevin Woolford; the American School of Warsaw, hosted by Mhairi MacInnes; the International School of Prague hosted by Jim Krikava, The American School in London hosted by Pete Lutkoski, The International School of Brussels hosted by Alisa Jiminez, The American School in Japan hosted by Kerry Nichols, The International School of Luxembourg hosted by Demos Dimitrakoulakos and Marymount International School of Rome hosted by Laura Lentz and The International Schoolof Beijing, hosted by David Beckstead and Cindy Bulteel.

Previous guest conductors include Alan Ginter, formerly of the Bilkent University Preparatory School, Ankara, Turkey; Jon Hodge, of Heidelberg High School; John Salminen then of the International School of Brussels, Jim Yarnell of The American School of the Hague, Neal Yocom of the American School of Paris, Peter Lutkoski of the American School in London, Kerry Nichols, formerly of The American School in Japan and Randy Wanless of The American School in Japan

Hotel and Housing Information:

Students will be housed with families who are members of the ASL community. Teachers and official chaperones are responsible for booking their own rooms with the festival hotel.

The official hotel for the Honor Jazz Festival is the
Danubius Hotel Regents Park
18 Lodge Road
London NW8 7JT
Phone: 020 7722 7722
Web site: www.danubiuslondon.co.uk

This hotel is within walking distance of The American School in London. We have blocked 20 rooms for the use of teachers and official chaperones involved with this festival. These rooms will be held until one month prior to the festival. In order to qualify for these special rates, you must quote "International Honor Jazz Festival" when booking. The rate includes full English breakfast, internet connection and VAT.

£115 for sole occupancy. £125 for double occupancy.
If anyone needs to book students into the hotel prior to the actual festival dates it may be of intereste that the hotel has a few Family Rooms with 1 double bed and 2 single beds in the room. The cost is £185 for 3 persons and £195 for 4 persons in the room.

Fees and Information

Payment: Full payment for the festival is due on August 15. Upon return to school, music teachers are requested to check with their business office to make sure payment has been made as requested.

What the registration fee covers:

Lunches: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Dinner: Saturday and Friday
Directors' Dinner (for teachers/chaperones) on Thursday evening

Note: Students will be housed with families and will have breakfast with them each day as well as dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and probably Friday nights

Financial Aid

Applications for financial aid must be received by AMIS prior to May 25th.

School Contact Information

The American School in London
One Waverley Place
London NW8 ONP

Phone:  +44 207 4491263
Fax:   +44 207 4491350

Host Organizer: Gordon Graham
Gordon_Graham@asl.org

Visa Information

A number of participants may need a visa to travel to the UK.  The UK is not a member of the Schengen system, so a Schengen visa will not allow admission into the UK.

For information about obtaining UK visas, including a list of which nationals need this visa, you can visit the following web site: http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en

Be sure to allow plenty of time to obtain your visa.

You can obtain a letter of invitation for this festival by requesting this letter from AMIS Headquarters with the following information:

Name of student as contained in their passport
Country issuing the passport
Date of arrival in the UK
Date of departure from the UK
Teacher or chaperone accompanying the student

General Information

Transport for Arrivals and Departures

How to get to The American School in London:

From Heathrow Airport
Option 1: Take the Heathrow Express (£16.50 pre-purchase online) non-stop service to London Paddington Station. From Paddington, either take a taxi to ASL (approximately £10) or take the London Underground to St. Johns Wood Station (£4, but significantly less if you hold an Oyster Swipe-Card).

Option 2: Take the London Underground from Heathrow Central to St. Johns Wood Station (£5, or £3.80 with an Oyster Card).

While the Underground option is cheaper, you should allow at least 90 minutes to travel from Heathrow to St. John's Wood, and there will be little or no space for luggage on the train.

From Gatwick Airport
Take the Gatwick Express train to London Victoria Station (30 minutes; £15.95 pre-purchase online). From Victoria, either take a taxi to ASL (approximately £20) or take the London Underground to St Johns Wood Station (£4, but significantly less if you hold an Oyster Swipe-Card).

From London City Airport
Take the Docklands Light Railway and London Underground system to St Johns Wood Station (£5, or £3.80 with an Oyster Card).

From Stansted Airport
Take the Stansted Express to London Liverpool Street Station (40 minutes; £27 round-trip pre-purchase online). From Liverpool Street Station, take the London Underground to St Johns Wood Station (£4, but significantly less if you hold an Oyster Swipe-Card).

From St Pancras Eurostar Terminal
Take the London Underground to St Johns Wood Station (£4, but significantly less if you hold an Oyster Swipe-Card) or take a taxi to ASL (approximately £15).

Once you reach St John's Wood Underground Station... proceed directly out the front door. There is only one exit from the station. The station is on an intersection, and all four streets that emerge from the intersection have different names. Cross the street and proceed down Grove End Road. The first right-hand street off Grove End Road is Waverley Place and the front entrance to ASL.

Concert Information

CONCERTS -WHAT TO WEAR: - updated 5 October, 2011 

Combo night means jeans and festival t-shirts
Saturday night concert means black trousers (or at least dark) long-sleeved white shirts and waistcoats, dark shoes and socks or hose

The Friday evening combo event will be held at Pizza Express in the London neighborhood of West Hampstead. Pizza Express is one of London's favorite pizza haunts, but more importantly to all of us, has a long and passionate history hosting jazz and other live music events. Perfect for our musicians!

Festivities will run from 6 to 9 pm on Friday, October 21st. The evening will include dinner (full buffet including pizzas, pastas, salads, breads, etc., as well as drinks including sparkling water, soft drinks and wine) and, of course, our live entertainment! Registration fees will cover dinner for all registered participants and official teachers/chaperones.

For visiting parents and other guests, the evening will cost £20/head. (Note: Transportation will be on one's own. Pizza Express is conveniently located near the West Hampstead Tube station - Jubilee Line.) See the full Pizza Express address below.

As the event needs to be booked and paid for in advance, parents and other guests interested in joining us for the evening will need to arrange their attendance and make payment in advance.

Visitors coming from outside London can make their bookings and payments through their school's Jazz Festival director, who will then pay for these dinners when registering for the festival.

To secure reservations for parents and other guests, please email ASL parent, Susan Plotner, NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 1st. Susan's email is susan.plotner@btinternet.com. Please put Pizza Express Reservations and your school name as the email subject.

Saturday night's concert at ASL: All groups will perform in this concert but featured groups will be the Big Band and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. There will be no charge for this concert. Please note that it will start at 7 p.m. (19:00). Please be prepared to show ID at ASL when entering the building, in case you are asked to do so. It is not necessary to prebook for this concert.

Address for Friday night's combo concert:
Pizza Express
319 West End Lane
London NW6 1RN
(Near the West Hampstead tube station, Jubilee Line)

Address for Saturday night's concert featuring all the festival groups:
The American School in London
One Waverley Place
London NW8 ONP
(This is only two blocks from the St. John's Wood tube station on the Jubilee Line.)