Page 9 - FIS World May 2019

“I’m extremely impressed at the level of playing by these high schoolers. Most of these talented kids will go on to be professional jazz players and it’s great seeing how excited they are about music.”
- FIS Music Teacher Philip Benson
Band Festival. They were accompanied by their di- rectors Julie Borsodi, FIS Orchestra Director and Jan Dettlaff, FIS Band Director, respectively.
This year, FIS did something that rarely happens in the AMIS world by hosting two AMIS festivals. The Honor Jazz Festival came to FIS in September with Primary School music teacher and jazz trombon- ist, Philip Benson, as the host director. Although Mr. Benson has attended many Jazz Festivals over the years, this was his first time hosting. When asked what excites him most about the Jazz Festivals he said, “ I’m extremely impressed at the level of play- ing by these high schoolers. Most of these talented kids will go on to be professional jazz players and it’s great seeing how excited they are about music.” This was apparent when nearly 100 students arrived at FIS and eagerly gathered into groups to talk ‘jazz’ and began a jam session the next morning before re- hearsals even started! Mr. Benson was spot on when he said,“The skills they learn at this festival will apply to their everyday lives forever.”
The second festival was held in March when FIS hosted the AMIS Middle School Mixed Choir Festival with Debra Damron as the host director. “After a year of planning, 91 Middle School choir students arrived with their chaperones from international schools near and far,” Ms. Damron said. “We were so proud of the welcome FIS gave to our guests. Our community
came together to provide housing for the students, fabulous meals from our cafeteria and baked goodies and snacks from FIS parents. We are so fortunate to have our own team of volunteers, Supporters of the Performing Arts (SPA), who generously gave their time to serve snacks twice a day and organized a beautiful reception after the Gala Concert on Saturday night.” The Gala Concert filled the FIS auditorium with joy- ous music that will ring forever in our hearts.
Keith Montgomery, Executive Director of AMIS and a music educator of nearly three decades says, “It’s ex- traordinary for a school to run two AMIS events in one year. It shows a tremendous amount of dedication to young people and music. FIS is a long-standing and foundational member of AMIS.”Mr. Montgomery travels to almost all of the nearly 20 festivals through- out the year in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, but he especially likes to return to Frankfurt. “It’s al- ways such a pleasure to come to FIS, where the wel- come is so warm; I never feel as though I am work- ing a job when we are running a festival at FIS, but rather that I am joining together with wonderful old friends to celebrate life and music.”
Rita Merrick
FIS Assistant to the Performing Arts
Rehearsals in Salzburg, Austria (upper left); and during the AMIS Honor Jazz Festival at FIS (above)
May 2019 FIS World 7