50th annual MBA Family of Festivals Jazz Band Festival celebrates music-making, sharing, and learning with 1,000+ students in 47 bands

by Staff - February 27, 2025 9
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Over the next two days the Manitoba Band Association (MBA) Family of Festivals Jazz Band Festival will welcome more than 1,000 students from 47 jazz bands from across southern Manitoba to the Centre cultural franco-manitobain (340 Provencher Blvd) to perform for panels comprising experienced and celebrated adjudicators and clinicians of national and international acclaim.

The MBA Family of Festivals, which began last week and runs over a total of 15 days through June 8, 2025, is one of the largest of its kind in Canada. The Family of Festivals continues in April with Level One Festivals for younger band students in both Winnipeg and Brandon where a combined 103 Level One concert bands and nearly 5,300 students will perform.

The Family of Festivals concludes in early June with a non-competitive and non-adjudicated Community Band Festival June 6 – 8 at beautiful Coronation Park in Winnipeg.

JAZZ BAND PROGRAM & SCHEDULE

The full digital program & festival schedule can be viewed online here.

JAZZ BAND FESTIVAL ADJUDICATORS & CLINICIANS

2025 Jazz Festival Beginner Class Clinicians

  1. Greg Crowe, guitar

  2. Darryl Ferguson, trumpet

  3. Sean Irvine, saxophone & woodwinds

  4. Alexis Silver, piano

  5. Allan Suban, percussion

  6. Lauren Teterenko, saxophone

2025 Jazz Festival Adjudicators (Junior Class and up)

  1. Claire Devlin, saxophone (Montreal, QC)

  2. Greg Gatien, saxophone (Brandon, MB)

  3. Jodi Proznick, bass (Vancouver, BC)

  4. Kathy Van Lare, trumpet (Calgary, AB)

FAMILY OF FESTIVALS OVERVIEW

The Manitoba Band Association (MBA) Family of Festivals (formerly the Optimist International Band Festival) have been a Manitoba tradition since 1976 and is growing this year to include the Concert Band Festival, Jazz Band Festival, the Level One Band Festivals in both Winnipeg and Brandon, and new for 2025 a Community Band Festival. These educational, non-competitive experiences are designed to celebrate music-making, community, and promote students’ and community members’ growth & development through a long-standing culture of positivity and encouragement. Bands come to share, learn, grow, and support each other and they leave these festival experiences inspired, energized and ready for more.

Building on the success of our 2024 festivals, we are excited to be growing and adding several aspects to our family of festivals:

 

  • The Concert Band Festival experienced a nearly 30% growth in participation this year, necessitating the addition of a third performance stage at RBC Convention Centre the result being that this year’s festival was be even more exciting with more bands and performances.

  • The two-day Jazz Band Festival is full this year, and includes a beginner jazz component for younger players.

 

  • To accommodate more bands at the Level One Festival in Winnipeg, and bands that have grown too large for the stage at our usual venue, My Church, we are adding a full additional day at a new venue to ensure all bands and students can have this experience.

 

  • To accommodate growth in participation at the Brandon-based Level One Festival, we are adding a second festival day, as well as a Band Celebration concert featuring the RCAF Band and two student/community bands from the Brandon Area, all taking place at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium and made possible in part thanks to funding from the Whitehead Foundation for Western Manitoba.

 

  • We are adding a Community Band Festival at beautiful Coronation Park in Winnipeg to celebrate lifelong music-making and encourage students to continue making music after high school.

 

These additions and expansions will ensure that no one is left behind and that hundreds more students, educators, and community musicians can have an MBA Family of Festivals experience in 2025 that will stay with them for a lifetime.

FULL FESTIVAL DATES & LOCATIONS:

Concert Band Festival: February 18-21, 2025 at the RBC Convention Centre and NEW: featuring the addition of a third performance stage to accommodate nearly 30% increase in participation.

Jazz Band Festival: February 27 – 28, 2025 at Centre culturel franco-manitobain

Level One Winnipeg Festival: April 22 – 24, 2025 at My Church Winnipeg & NEW: April 25, 2025 at École Regent Park

Level One Brandon Festival: April 29 & 30, 2025 at Brandon University & Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium

NEW: Community Band Festival: June 6 – 8, 2025 at Coronation Park in Winnipeg

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