San Jose, June 26, 2020: Easterbrook Discovery Middle School (EDMS) and its musicians have been awarded three 2020 Downbeat Awards for outstanding performance.  The 2019 EDMS Jazz Band and selected musicians submitted their nominations last school year for the award selection that took place this Spring 2020.

Former Eighth grade student Felipe Feldman (now a freshman at Prospect High School) received an award in the Junior High School Soloist category with Mr. Nils Johnson as the instructor, and Diogo Feldman received an award in the Honor Junior High School Soloist category (with Jeff Lewis as the instructor).  Both submissions for EDMS and Felipe Feldman were EDMS’ performance at last year’s Music in the Parks festival. 

In addition, Eastserbrook Discovery Middle School’s Jazz Band was awarded “Junior High School Outstanding Performances - Jazz Band.” 

Musicians submit instrumental or vocal recordings in one of 11 categories.  Student musicians receive scores on musicianship, creativity, improvisation, technique, sound quality and balance, excitement, and authority.  The judges are professional musicians and educators.  The DownBeat Student Music Awards, a national competition open to junior high, high school, university, and solo entries, is considered among the highest music honors in the field of jazz education.   

This is Moreland School District’s third year in a row receiving the Downbeat Award.  In 2017, Daiki Nakajima, a Moreland Middle School 8th grader at the time, was selected as a 2017 DownBeat Student Music Awards (SMA) winner, including an additional recognition of “Junior High School Outstanding Performance” for his Tenor Saxophone recording.  Daiki was also recognized in 2019 as a Prospect High School student in the high school category, and in the Small Combo category with SFJazz’ High School All Stars Big Band.  In 2019, Felipe Feldman, an Easterbrook Discovery School 8th grader at the time, was awarded second place in the junior high category for the 2019 DownBeat Student Music Awards

Moreland School District is proud to be home to budding and thriving student musicians.  With the leadership of Music in Moreland (MiM), a subcommittee of the Moreland Education Foundation (MEF), parents and community members dedicate their time to sustaining Moreland’s award-winning music program.  For more information on Music in Moreland, visit www.mefhome.org/music-in-moreland/