For years, the jazz program at Newton South High School (NSHS) has been consistently recognized as one of the nation’s best. The program’s Jazz Ensemble, directed by celebrated NSHS music educator Lisa Linde, receives top ratings at the Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education’s state festivals and places among the top ensembles at the Berklee School of Music High School Jazz Festival.
Linde named John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year
In February, Linde was named the 2025 John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year – a national award given annually to an outstanding jazz educator who represents the “highest standards of teaching” and brings distinction to “their institution and their students,” according to the Jazz Education Network.
Linde said that receiving the award was an incredible honor and that because there are so few women in the field of jazz education, she is thrilled that educators like her are being recognized.
“For this award, I am the third woman on the list [of recipients] that goes back to 2007,” she said. “There are many men that have a similar record to me in regards to winning jazz competitions. This award also sends the message that doing the work to create gender equity and jazz with my nonprofit JazzHers is something that is valued by the larger community.”
JazzHers aims to correct gender imbalance
Linde said that 80 to 90 percent of students in a typical high school jazz program are boys, with the gender gap increasing even more in college and professional jazz settings. Her nonprofit organization, JazzHers, creates programming to tackle the issue head-on, encouraging girls and non-binary students to pursue the genre in which they are underrepresented.
“Earlier this year, we had a no-audition honor band, where students are recommended by their teachers, and it culminates in a jazz festival that features women-led jazz groups,” she said. “We also have weekly ensemble sessions that have had the opportunity to rehearse with members of the Navy Commodores Jazz Ensemble, and just this past week they played in a concert at the University of Rhode Island.”
Thanks in large part to the JazzHers program, Linde said that she has seen awareness of gender equity issues in jazz spread across the state.
“I am seeing more directors program pieces with women composers, I have seen them hire more women as guest artists, and I have seen for the first time ever that women have been hired as adjudicators in our state jazz festivals,” she said.
For those who are enrolled in her classes at Newton South High School, Linde is a true inspiration.
Newton South junior Max Stober performs in Linde’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo. Last semester, he worked as a teaching assistant in her Jazz Improv class.
Stober said that he looks up to Linde as a music educator. He said that she has a gift for balancing group instruction with individual mentorship.
“As someone who has become increasingly interested in jazz and doing music education myself, she’s given me a lot of opportunities to grow through teaching other students, and she even lets me walk into her office and show her a new arrangement or composition, and she’ll have us do it,” he said. “It cannot be overstated how talented she is as an educator. I’ve seen her get kids who can barely play their instrument to take a pretty solid improvised solo in 10 minutes.”
NSHS Jazz Ensemble in top 30 worldwide
Under Linde’s leadership, the NSHS Jazz Ensemble was selected to compete in this year’s Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 30th Annual Essentially Ellington Competition. The competition is recognized as one of the most prestigious jazz education events in the world, with participation restricted to what the Center deems the top 30 high school jazz bands in the world.
On Monday, March 3, GRAMMY Award-winning saxophonist and educator Chris Lewis visited Newton South to lead an innovative clinic, giving students a chance to workshop their skills before the competition.
At the workshop, Lewis worked with students to help them take their performance to the next level. Through demonstrations, questions, and conversation, he emphasized the importance of hearing how different musical parts fit together, understanding the character of the part, playing with authority, understanding one’s role in the piece, being fully engaged, and making the music sing.
Newton South sophomore and clarinetist Leila Mostaghimi was one of many student performers who attended the workshop. She said that Lewis helped her and other members of the Jazz Ensemble look at the music they had been learning in a new way.
“My favorite part of [the] workshop was when [Lewis] played clarinet on The Mooche, one of our Ellington pieces, with us and forced us all to improvise. We had spent so much time perfecting our performance for the application to Ellington that we had lost sight of the spirit of the music, and he definitely helped fix that,” she said. “While our performance is less technically perfect now, it’s more expressive, stylistic, and exciting to listen to, and we’re having more fun, which is definitely important!”
Lewis said that he loves to see high school students so devoted to the pursuit of jazz music.
“I’m 28. Ten years ago, I was not doing anything like this when I was in high school,” he said. “So to see kids who would voluntarily dedicate their time to learn this music when most kids their age are probably thinking, ‘well, this music’s from 100 years ago, who cares?’ For them to understand it and approach it with that level of seriousness is inspiring to me.”
As an educator, Lewis said that he values giving students artistic freedom to explore pieces of music in their own way.
“They’ve been playing this music for so long. You want to correct certain things, but you don’t want to push too hard because you don’t want to change the way people play too much,” he said. “You have to meet people where they are. It’s the same thing with dealing with people outside of music.”
Linde said that the beauty of the Essentially Ellington competition comes down to the shared experience of enjoying the music itself.
“Duke Ellington is the greatest American composer of all time. The Essentially Ellington program has finally made Duke’s music accessible,” she said. “Prior to this Lincoln Center Initiative, most of Duke Ellington’s music was not published. The Ellington program makes the music free to all.”
This year’s Essentially Ellington competition will take place from May 7-11 in New York City.
Ed. Notes: Theo Younkin is a Fig City News student reporter, a junior at Newton South High School, and Co-Managing Editor of the NSHS Lion’s Roar. Kimberly Gladman and Chris Pitts contributed to this article.
