News Release

For Immediate Release

January 23, 2023

Red River High School to Host Myra Jazz Festival

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Red River High School will host the annual Myra Jazz Festival on January 31-February 1 in the Red River High School Performance Hall. 

Participants include middle schools and high schools from Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, and the surrounding region.

Middle school bands will perform on January 31 from 9-11:30 a.m. High school bands will perform in the morning and afternoon on February 1.

The Myra Jazz Band, under the direction of Robert Brooks, director of jazz ensembles at the University of North Dakota, will perform at 1 p.m. on February 1. This concert will feature performances by guest clinicians as soloists.

The festival is free and open to the public on both days.

Festival clinicians are Brian Handeland and David Stanoch. 

Handeland is a saxophonist, woodwind doubler, lesson instructor, and guest clinician/educator based in Minneapolis. His current musical projects include the JazzMN Orchestra, BS Project, BH4, The Soul Shack, Shirts & Skins, and Fuzzy Math. Handeland also teaches private saxophone, clarinet, and flute lessons around the Twin Cities. He also regularly works as a guest instructor and performer at a variety of K-12 schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Stanoch has drummed professionally since age 12, building an eclectic musical reputation working with artists in jazz, rock, R&B, Broadway, motion pictures, and television. Artists include Hiram Bullock, George Clinton, Sheryl Crow, Richard Davis, Stanley Jordan, Keb' Mo, New Kids On The Block, Bonnie Raitt, Doc Severinsen, Ben Sidran, Timbuk 3, Butch Vig, and The Supremes' Mary Wilson. He is currently the musical director for Emmy-winner Shaun Johnson's Big Band Experience. 

The Myra Jazz Festival is fully funded by a grant from the Myra Foundation.

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