Grammy Winner Patti Austin to Perform with LAUSD All-City Jazz Ensemble at Beyond the Bell Concert

LOS ANGELES - May 27, 2013 - PRLog -- GRAMMY® Award-winning singer Patti Austin is featured in a free concert with music students from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 2, at the world-famous Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The concert is part of the mentorship program under LAUSD and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz partnership.

Student ensembles from six LAUSD schools will perform jazz standards, classics, and contemporary tunes that they have been working on throughout the year with instruction from the Institute’s jazz educators. The finale will feature Ms. Austin with the LAUSD All-City Jazz Ensemble in a performance of “Too Close for Comfort,” from her GRAMMY®-nominated CD, “For Ella,” a tribute to jazz vocal icon Ella Fitzgerald. Ms. Austin will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame on June 22.

The All-City Jazz Ensemble is comprised of the best young jazz musicians across the District, under the direction of Tony White, LAUSD Beyond the Bell Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator, and Dr. J.B. Dyas, the Institute’s Vice President for Education and Curriculum Development. Thelonious Monk Jr., son of legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and the Institute’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, will serve as emcee for the event. Participating schools include Eagle Rock High School, Manual Arts High School, Pacoima Middle School, Ramon C. Cortines High School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Walter Reed Middle School, and Washington Preparatory High School.

Ms. Austin, in hopes of inspiring LAUSD students to achieve greatness in whatever they do, will perform live at their final concert of the school year. “For me, music is the strongest door opener to the hearts and minds of the people, a way of re-energizing the focus on forward thinking approaches to education,” said Austin. “Learning should never stop for all age groups. We can empower millions to realize the opportunity to help shape a new society of creative ‘mentorologists’ in all areas of life.”

Best known for her jazz performances and R&B hits, Ms. Austin is also recognized for ushering in new talent to the industry through mentoring. Ms. Austin will also serve as an artist-in-residence at the Institute’s graduate-level Jazz Performance scholarship program at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. With long-time friend and design mentor Dawn Carroll, Ms. Austin founded the non-profit Over My Shoulder Foundation (OMSF), which promotes personal development through "mentorology"—a term coined by the singer-songwriter tandem to denote the art and science of conveying knowledge across the disciplines of music and design. Ms. Austin acknowledges the role that mentoring played in developing her career as a vocalist. It was through the encouragement of her parents, and later by godparents multi-GRAMMY®-winner Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington, that she reached where she is right now.

“The partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Thelonious Monk Institute, which is now in its 11th year, is an enormous asset to LA public schools,” said White. “The students not only learn from renowned artists like Patti Austin, they learn from each other.” In so doing, the student musicians are teaching and learning from their peers not unlike virtually all great jazz players have done throughout the music’s 100-year history. “And when you hear how great these young kids play,” added T.S. Monk, “you know the future of our music is in good hands.”

The Thelonious Monk Institute’s Jazz in the Classroom program is supported in part by LAUSD’s Beyond the Bell Branch. Former Jazz in the Classroom students have gone on to receive music scholarships to prestigious colleges and universities, and to perform with GRAMMY®-winning artists. The LAUSD Beyond the Bell Jazz Band, directed by Tony White and J.B. Dyas, will perform at the 35th Anniversary Playboy Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 16.

Calendar editors, please note:
Who: LAUSD Beyond the Bell 10th Anniversary Concert featuring special guest Patti Austin
When: Sunday, June 2, 2013, 2–5 p.m.
Where: The Roxy Theatre, 9009 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA  90069
Admission: Free and open to the public; all ages concert
Information: Call 310-278-9457 or visit online at theroxyonsunset.com

Media are invited to attend these events:
Saturday, June 1 (call for time): Rehearsal at El Sereno School, 2839 N. Eastern Ave., Los Angeles, CA  90032
Sunday, June 2, 2–5 p.m.: Performance at the Roxy Theatre, 9009 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA  90069

About Patti Austin
Grammy winner Patti Austin crosses all musical genres, has made 17 solo albums, and has performed her award-nominated hit songs on the GRAMMYS® and the Oscars. As a performer, songwriter and vocalist she has had a star-studded career that began at the age of four, making her one of the most beloved artists the world over and a mainstay on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts. Patti’s extraordinary career continues to cross over boundaries and reach new heights. http://pattiaustin.com/

About Over My Shoulder Foundation
The Over My Shoulder Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Patti Austin and Dawn Carroll to promote mentoring and Mentorology through music and design. OMSF hails Mentorology, the art and science of mentoring, as the number-one priority as they move forward producing live events which bring together industry leaders in order to pay tribute to great mentors and put the spotlight on the importance of mentoring.

About the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz
The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a nonprofit education organization established in memory of Thelonious Monk, the legendary jazz pianist and composer. Monk was one of the primary architects of bebop and his impact as both performer and composer has had a profound influence on every genre of music. He believed the best way to learn jazz was from a master of the music. The Institute follows that same philosophy by bringing together the greatest living jazz musicians to teach and inspire young people, offering the most promising young musicians college level training by world-renowned jazz masters through its fellowship program in Jazz Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, and presenting public school-based jazz education programs around the world. Helping to fill the tremendous void in arts education left by budget cuts in public school funding, the Institute’s programs are provided free to the public and use jazz as the medium to encourage imaginative thinking, creativity, a positive self-image, and respect for one’s own and others’ cultural heritage. Jazz great Herbie Hancock serves as the Institute’s chairman.  www.monkinstitute.org.

KJazz 88.1 FM is a media sponsor of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and its music education outreach programs.