Jazz musicians Brandon Hermreck and Nini Coracides know how to perform under pressure, after all, they’ve been doing it throughout their entire high school careers.

On Feb. 24-25, the senior and sophomore – as well as the rest of the jazz band – traveled to the annual Northern Arizona University Jazz Festival to compete and learn from a collection of today’s top jazz musicians.

The jazz band is accustomed to winning “Superior” awards at competitions after doing so for the past three years at NAU, but last month’s event offered a new type of adversity.

Before performing their set in front of three judges, there was some concern that the group was not ready to perform.

“I was a little worried because we had to cut one of the songs because it wasn’t [up] to our standards,” sophomore trombone player Nini Coracides said, “but we put in another song that we played last quarter.”

After a successful performance, the entire ensemble attended a clinic led by a musician that specializes in jazz.

Meanwhile, they earned a rating of “Superior” from the judges – the highest rank possible.

“To an extent some of us were expecting to get a “Superior,” so it was just nice getting [one] again,” Hermreck said.

In addition, Hermreck received an Outstanding Soloist Award, which only occurs after all three judges vote for a select few of the festival’s greatest performers.

“It felt pretty awesome to get the recognition from the judges; I felt that the performance I had was really great and [practicing] paid off,” Hermreck said.

Traveling to NAU also served as bonding time for the group as a whole. As a break from all of the technicalities, the night ended in Flagstaff’s historic downtown district before watching jazz performances and returning to the hotel to wake for an early gig.

Hermreck said the entire trip was a fun, but exhausting experience.

“[It was] quite funny because you’re spending a night with a bunch of weird jazz kids…[and] you come back from [an] awesome concert, and you’re like dead… so you just fall asleep.”

With all of this talent, band director Brandon Kiesgen expects to qualify for state when they attend the AREA Jazz Festival later this morning at Hamilton High School.

“I’ve been really pleased with the quality of the ensemble,” Kiesgen said.