The members of the Jazz A Band weren't the only CSUN students to capture the attention of festival judges. Northridge's Vocal Jazz band also took first place while the Combo "1" took third place and the Studio Band took fourth, beating out several higher ranking college bands.

Four Northridge students also took honors in individual performance competitions: junior Justin Janer was named "Best College Saxophone Player," freshman Harrison Kirk was named "Best College Trombone Player," junior Adam Alesi was named "Best College Drummer" and senior Genevive Artadi was named "Best College Vocalist."

"I'm so proud of our students. They have worked so hard to uphold the reputation of our program," said music professor Matt Harris, coordinator of CSUN's jazz studies program. "I knew that the students were really good when we went into the festival, but you never can tell what the judges are going to like from year to year. I am happy we won, although I'm more happy that we were given the opportunity to play music at such a high level."

The Reno Jazz Festival at the University of Nevada, Reno features performances by world class musicians from around the world while at the same time offering clinics, workshops and competitions for thousands of middle school, high school and college jazz aficionados. The festival and its competitions have a reputation for focusing the spotlight on tomorrow's jazz stars. It took place April 27 through 29.

Competition pressure can play with the musicians' nerves, but add on a power failure just before a crucial performance and even the best artists can become unraveled.

Ten minutes before the Jazz A Band was scheduled to perform their set, the power went off across the entire Reno campus. Harris talked it over with the adjudication panel and decided to go ahead with the set without amplifiers or a sound system.

"The students had the ‘deer in headlights' look when I first told them we were going ahead without amplifiers. I simply said ‘it's time to play music…use your ears and balance everything the way we normally do in rehearsals,'" he said. "The standing room-only audience was completely silent as we played through our set. Needless to say, the band was terrific and rose to the occasion."