USA Jazz Tour 2025

What if I told you that our Year 10 Boys and Girls Cricket teams, had the opportunity to be coached by the British Ashes Team over at the Lords in December? I know…that would be unbelievable, wouldn’t it? What an opportunity! 

Well, change frame of thinking from cricket to jazz music and that describes the significance of an opportunity that 29 of our students have at the end of this year.  

For the first time in the school’s history, Donvale Christian College will participate in a two-week music tour engaging in masterclass workshops and performances in New York City, at the world-renowned Lincoln Centre, and in Chicago. This is a once in a life-time opportunity for our jazz students. As a college, we are so excited they will have the good fortune to learn from the cream of the crop. 

In 1993 the instrumental music and bands program began at DCC. In these early years students began to develop their gifts in both the Concert Band and Big Band. Then in 2008, from these humble beginnings, DCC staff Phillip Reichman (Head of Music) and Tim Fisher (Head of Brass) took the music program to the next level.

From there, our music program has grown significantly — continually seeking new challenges and opportunities for our students. This includes our first appearance at Generations in Jazz (GiJ) in 2013, through to last year when Donvale took three big bands, and two jazz combos to GiJ, our Senior Big Band performing in the elite Division 1 for the first time.  

Each of the 29 students have been part of the Donvale Jazz program and have undergone a rigorous audition process to be a part of this unique opportunity. This tour celebrates, both how far our program has come, and a bold step forward in providing our students with world-class musical experiences. 

As a community, we celebrate the gifts and talents of each of our students, always striving to ensure they have spaces to flourish. This is one of those times! Creating and performing music, especially jazz is an incredibly skillful activity – holding to the melody while riffing off (improvising) one another, takes careful attention and much practice. 

Anchored by the melody, each instrument contributes to the piece, individually improvising to make beautiful music. Much like our faith journey, anchored to Christ, each student contributes, individually using their gifts and talents to be part of God’s beautiful story.  

This tour represents a major milestone in Donvale’s jazz journey — a capstone experience for our 50th year, and a rare opportunity for our students to learn, perform, and grow on the international stage.  Who knows how God will use this moment, but we are excited to see where He leads us next.