Jazz Band Camps
Middle & High School
June 19 - 23, 2023
We’re excited to announce that the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association will be holding not just one, but TWO jazz band camps this summer! This year's exciting addition is a middle school program. The big bands are for middle and high school students, incoming grades 6-12. If you play alto sax, tenor sax, bari sax, trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, bass guitar, vibes, or drums you can sign up for the bands! If you have high school experience, please sign up for the HS camp (9am-12pm). If you have middle school experience or NO HS experience, come for the afternoon MS session (1-3pm)! You don't need to have any jazz experience to join the MS band, just a solid year or more of experience on your instrument. The CSYSA Jazz Big Band Camp is a 5-day summer experience that allows students a chance to play in an excellent big band, be exposed to great jazz literature of varying styles, play in sectionals led by experienced players and educators, learn jazz theory, and give a concert at the end of the week.
Monday through Friday
HS Camp: 9am-12pm
MS Camp: 1pm-3pm
Friday, June 23rd: Rehearsals in the morning, joint HS/MS concert in the evening
Tuition: $200
Open to musicians in incoming grades 6-12.
Important Dates
May 29th: Registration due. $100 deposit due at time of registration.
May 22nd: Music emailed to you
June 19th: First Day of Camp-$100 remaining balance due
Camp Faculty
Dan Bell
Lead Instructor
Daniel (Dan) Bell has taught for 33 years in the districts of Fort Lupton (CO), Rangeview HS (Aurora), and Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) as a high school assistant and junior high band director. Mr. Bell is a proud University of Iowa and Colorado State University alumni. In the past 20 years, Mr. Bell’s jazz band and symphonic band have performed for the Colorado Music Educator’s Clinic/Conference twelve times. The Cheyenne Mountain JH Symphonic Band was a featured band at the 2007 American School Band Director’s Association (ASBDA) national convention in Colorado Springs. The symphonic band was a featured group at the UNC Conducting Symposium held in 2017 at UNC in Greeley, where they got to work with famed composer and band method book author Bruce Pearson.
Dan was a regular member of the staff at the Colorado State Rocky Mountain Summer Music Camp for 26 years as a jazz and band instructor, and has been the band director at the Colorado Mesa University Middle School music camp in June in Grand Junction from 2015 - present. He has also been on the staff for the Colorado Mesa University Jazz Utopia summer camp for the past 6 years. Dan has a brass private studio, and has conducted over 50 honor bands in Colorado. He is an experienced adjudicator at jazz and concert festivals and competitions, and has presented workshops and clinics for IAJE’s Teacher Training Institute in Kansas City, the Wyoming Music Educators All-State Convention, Colorado Bandmaster’s Association summer convention, and the Colorado Music Educator’s Association conference and clinic. Mr. Bell was also the Music Director for the 2010 Colorado Association of String Teachers Association (CASTA) camp. Dan was picked as the “Teacher of the Year” in the Spring of 2011 by the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Guild, was awarded the Distinguished Fine Arts Educator of the Year by the Colorado Springs Arts and Business Consortium in 2006, was awarded as outstanding project of the year by the Arts and Business Consortium in 2016 for the Futures Concert in D12. Dan was given the “Citation of Excellence in Teaching” by the National Band Association in May of 2014. Mr. Bell is a member of CMEA, JEN, CBA, Phi Beta Mu, Phi Mu Alpha, NAfME, and ASBDA. Mr. Bell conducts the musicals at Cheyenne Mountain High School, performs in the Pikes Peak region as a freelance trumpet player, and is 2nd trumpet in the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs.