The Temple High School Highlighters recently returned from a trip to New Orleans, where they performed at the eighth annual Jazz Education Network Conference.
Brent Mathesen, assistant director of bands and director of the Highlighters, said this was the jazz band’s second time playing at a JEN conference, but it was their first time performing in the city where the genre was born.
“New Orleans being the origin of jazz, we thought that’d be a great place to take our kids and go to this event,” he said.
Musicians from all over the world come to perform and teach at the annual conference, so it was a golden opportunity for the students.