SEQUIM — It’s 6:45 a.m. and these teenagers are hot. You might say they’re one of the smartest bands in the state.
With a collective grade-point average of 3.535, the Sequim High School Jazz Ensemble was recently named state academic champion among 2A school bands.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, or WIAA, presents academic achievement awards to bands, cheerleading squads, theater groups and dance, drill, debate and sports teams around the state, to emphasize the need for such activities in a young person’s life.
“It actually wakes you up,” band member Persephone Nelson said of playing jazz before the regular school day starts.
The ensemble meets during “zero hour,” from 6:45 a.m. to 7:35 a.m.
Unfolding on the music stands: a range of jazz and related styles: Santana, Count Basie, Chick Corea’s “Spain,” the “Flintstones” theme.
So does jazz make you smart?
Twenty-five players’ voices answer on a dime: “Yes.”
Vern Fosket, leader of the bands at Sequim High for more than a decade, has read the research showing music broadens kids’ minds.
And his bunch of 15- to 18-year-olds provides audible proof, first thing in the morning, that band is good for brain.
“This,” added trumpeter Amy Oppfelt, “is the best part of the day.”
