Primary Instrument: Band/ensemble/orchestra
The New England Jazz Ensemble is a performance group, as well as a composers forum, comprising regionally-based artists in both big-band and small-group configurations. It features original and contemporary arrangements and compositions, much of it generated by the ensembles members.
The group is helping to perpetuate the uniquely American large jazz ensemble as an art medium. It accomplishes this and its other goals by encouraging the writing of new work, addressing culturally diverse audiences, educating the public about jazz, sharing the band's wealth of expertise with the public in the form of concerts, educational forums and programs, and through guest performances and recordings. The New England Jazz Ensemble thus supports the opportunities for professional jazz artists to be employed in their specific areas of expertise in order to maintain the integrity of the jazz community in the region.
