Teenage ensemble scores high in music event
By: Cara Latham
MILLSTONE The teenage band The After Effect, consisting of middle and high school students from area towns, battled sleet and snow last weekend to trek eight hours from their Millstone practice basement to their debut performance, where they scored high in the non-competitive category in the Berklee College of Music’s High School Jazz Festival on Saturday at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
The festival "is like the Stanley Cup" for jazz bands some of which traveled from as far away as France and Costa Rica to perform, said Peter Mauro, retired Allentown High School Band director. He is also the current director of The After Effect, comprised of teenage musicians from the All-American School of Music in Millstone. A total of 244 musical groups, 130 of which were from high schools, performed at this year’s festival, he said.
The After Effect band is small not just in number (it has 20 members, 17 of whom traveled to Boston), but in the case of Julian Gellman, in height as well. The sixth-grade trumpeter from Millstone stands on a milk crate while performing next to a fellow band player, who is a high school junior.
And it is far from a lavish operation. The group practices in the evenings out of the basement of band members Frankie and Michelle Prendergast in Millstone and they plan to stay down there until Mr. Mauro can find a local building where they can set up shop. And instead of being bused to the festival, the band members were driven by their parents in seven separate cars up to Boston.
But it is, of course, the music that counts. The band took the stage at the festival and played three songs: "Birdland," by Weather Report; "Broken Promise," by Paul Clark, which featured the band’s only senior Joseph Gellman; and "Chameleon," written by Herbie Hancock; all of which Mr. Mauro arranged and fitted specifically for his band. And when the little band was done playing, it scored 280 points out of a possible 300 from Berklee judges, Mr. Mauro said.
"When I announced it to them, they launched out of their chairs," he said. "I couldn’t calm them down for 15 minutes. The parents were crying, and the kids were hugging one another."
The judges had written accolades on the sheets, including one that said 10th-grade flutist Samantha Hanzepetros was "playing beyond her years," and another that said "the balance in the band was perfect."
"I was just ecstatic with the kids and the way they performed," he said. "The most amazing thing was the fact that these kids, with the average age of 14, took on these huge high school jazz bands."
Mr. Mauro said he formed the nonprofit performing arts school and The After Effect last May. The school does not compete with local public schools, but rather, gives students who are seeking to further excel in music, the opportunity to receive a professional music education on evenings and weekends, he said.
"Here’s my little school of the arts in Millstone you got public high schools here with public funds to support their music programs, and we have nothing but a lot of heart," Mr. Mauro said.
And killer improvisation, which he credits with putting The After Effect over the top.
"We were so excited," Frankie said. "We knew we performed the best we’ve ever performed when we got off that stage." But they still didn’t think they would come in first, he added.
"After we watched the performance from the tape back at the hotel, it just made us feel great," he said.
Upper Freehold band member Alex Berwick received a "phenomenal" honorable mention for his drum set performance, and 10th-grade flutist Samantha Hanzepetros received a soloist award for her performance, Mr. Mauro said.
After the band’s performance, the judges left their seats in the back of the room and "wanted to know who wrote the arrangements and if I was going to publish them," Mr. Mauro said, adding that when judges do that, it’s the best compliment a teacher can receive.
Mr. Mauro took the songs "and fitted them for my band," he said. He received five out of five possible points for his work in the selection of songs and how it was arranged.
"For me, I love writing for my kids. Now it’s got me thinking, maybe I should publish these arrangements."
Mary Prendergast, mother of Frankie and Michelle, said that the experience was "the most exciting time we could have ever imagined."
"Every parent in that room cried," she said. "It was just an incredible experience, just for the experience to play at Berklee. We didn’t go there with expectations of any kind."
But the best part was that "the judges came up to us and asked us to be in the scholarship competition next year," Ms. Prendergast said. "There really are no words to express the excitement and pride that we feel."
She called Mr. Mauro a "gift" and said that he brought out the best in all band members with his skill arranging themusic.
Still, Mr. Mauro credits the students with playing their music so well without being nervous, and for really improvising when it came to their solos.
When they perform solos, "they’re not playing something that’s written," he said. "They were creating something on the spot, which goes from the head to the mind to the horn. It’s nothing you can memorize, it’s nothing you can prepare for. It’s creation."
The band has been invited and is looking forward to performing at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. in May.

