Wheeling students to make state jazz combo featured in 'Night of Jazz'
Over the course of Brian Logan's long career as band director at Wheeling High School, he has seen only three students named to the All State Jazz Combo, which includes the best seven players in Illinois.
Seniors Samantha Melinyshyn and Andrew Panzer were selected in January, while more than a dozen years ago, Steve Thomas, now a professional musician and band director at Grayslake Middle School, also made it to the elite group.
On Friday, all three will play on the same stage, in a jam session of sorts as part of Wheeling High School's "Night of Jazz."
"I couldn't resist," Logan says. "They're the only three from our school to ever make that prestigious group."
Their performance will come during an evening filled with the cool sounds of jazz, including sets by the award winning Jazz Band I and Jazz Band II, in the school's Robert E. Sang Theater. It takes place at 7:30 p.m.
The audience will see the culmination of the performers' successful year and get a preview of their European trip this summer, when they compete in jazz festivals in Montreux, Switzerland, and Umbria, Italy, during July.
Thomas is happy to be returning to his alma mater to perform as a featured artist alongside students who love the jazz medium as much as he did when he sat in their seats.
Although he grew up the son of a band director - his father, Dave Thomas, directs the program at MacArthur Middle School in Prospect Heights - he credits Wheeling High School with nurturing his pursuit of music as a career.
"I didn't know I wanted to do anything with my music until I got to Wheeling," says Thomas, of Buffalo Grove. "I mean I grew up the son of a band director, but music was never forced on me."
Logan says Thomas' ability on the trumpet stood out from the moment he entered high school. He was named to the All State Jazz Combo for his musicianship on the trumpet both his junior and senior year.
Thomas majored in music performance at DePaul University and earned his master's there in jazz trumpet performance. During those years, he also helped out in Wheeling's band department, teaching students privately and leading its Jazz Band II.
Summers, he advanced from being a student to an artist in residence and faculty member at Jamey Aebersold's Summer Jazz Workshop in Louisville.
Last year, he helped restore the band program at Grayslake Middle School when Grayslake Community Consolidated School District 46 reinstated its fine arts offerings.
Now, Thomas says, he has the best of both worlds: working as a recording jazz musician on nights and weekends, while teaching during the day. He advises that type of dual pursuit to aspiring musicians.
"I tell them to consider other aspects of music as well, like the business end of it or teaching," Thomas says. "To be a complete musician these days, you have to play more than your instrument."