All members of this award-winning ensemble are selected by audition each semester, with primary consideration given to sight-reading and jazz-improvisation skills. You must be enrolled in order to participate in this class. Jazz Ensemble I has:

• Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival College Big Band Winner
• Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards Large Jazz Ensemble Graduate College Outstanding Performance
• Toured Europe, Japan, Poland, South America, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.
• Performed at the San Sebastian Jazz Festival.
• Shared the top billing with the Freddie Hubbard Sextet.
• Been featured in concerts and recordings with artists-in-residence and special guest artists throughout the year.
• Recorded several CDs that have received critical acclaim, including the Downbeat Five-Star Award for Muy Caliente.
• Reno Jazz Festival Winner College Combo Division and Outstanding College Performers
• IAJE Sisters In Jazz Quintet
• Performed in concert with Manhattan Transfer, Bebe Neuwirth, Ben Vereen, Marvin Hamlish, Tommy Tune and the casts of Forbidden Broadway, Jeckyll and Hyde.

Other tours have taken the band to:

• The Kennedy Center
• The Village Vanguard
• The Hawaii International Jazz Festival
• The Telluride International Jazz Festival

In addition the band has performed with such artists as: