2025 EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival and Concert Information

EMTA 2025 Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival and Workshop

30 September 2025: EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival and Workshop Registration Deadline
11 October 2025: EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival with Masterclasses and Workshop
The 2025 EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival and Workshop Registration Form

EMTA 2025 Jazz, Rags, and Blues Concert

7 October 2025: Deadline to purchase reduced price EMTA Festival Concert Tickets
10 October 2025: EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival Concert with the Ev Stern Trio at 7:00PM
The 2025 EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival Concert Ticket Purchase Form
Venue: Edmonds Lutheran Church, 23525 84th Ave W, Edmonds, WA 98026

2025 EMTA Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival Chairpersons: Marie Wollam-Mergler, Cathy Baylor and Valerie Gathright.
EMTA members should contact the chairpersons via email with any questions about the festival. Please check the members only section of the website for contact information.


Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival Concert

The Ev Stern Trio will perform a set of music exploring different styles of jazz from early blues to contemporary. Ev will narrate, take questions and explain what is happening in the band to make it a more interactive concert. Students will be able to purchase $5 student and $10 parent tickets in advance. Tickets will be available for $20 at door.
Photos may be taken at this concert for use on the EMTA website and Facebook.
* Please note – EMTA Teachers need to purchase the $10.00 tickets if planning on attending the festival concert.

Concert date and time: October 10, 2025 at 7:00PM
Concert Venue: Edmonds Lutheran Church, 23525 84th Ave W, Edmonds, WA 98026

About the Ev Stern Trio:
The Ev Stern trio has been performing regularly since its formation in 2003. They have a playful interactive melodic swinging style whose listeners remark ” the instruments are talking to each other” and “I always know where I am in the song” (unlike other jazz bands). Eric Verlinde grew up in Snohomish and has been playing piano since he was five years old. His mother Blanca weaned him on The Sound Of Music, and he developed an incredibly extensive and diverse repertoire of music from Europe and the Americas, and composed a book of his own music available on CD. He began playing jazz as a teenager and studied at the Berklee School of Music and Mount Hood Community College before returning to Seattle at the dawn of the 21st century to embark on a journey as a musician, playing countless gigs all over the Puget Sound where he has been a stalwart leader and collaborator. His wife of 20 years, Mitzi, a sometime drummer, has been a huge supporter of Eric and his friends. D’Vonne Lewis is the grandson of Dave Lewis Sr who, in the 1960s, led the most popular bands in Seattle. D’Vonne grew up playing drums in the church from the age of two. And now his son, Donovan, is going into sixth grade and also plays the drums. D’Vonne graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2002, and he quickly rose to prominence leading his own bands like Industrial Revelation, recording his own Rap records, putting on historical theater, and winning a Seattle Genius Award. Ev Stern was born in Ann Arbor Michigan and took a BA in English from Oberlin College in Ohio, taught high school humanities for 3 years, and then followed his passion for improvisation to Seattle in 1989. After inventing Grunge, Ev studied classical bass, Jazz, and World Music with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan at the University of Washington. For over 30 years Ev has been leading his Jazz Workshop, helping over a thousand aspiring musicians of all ages to achieve their goals, and he has taken this particular trio all over the Seattle area to uplift people with music.

Jazz, Rags, and Blues Festival and Workshop Information

The festival will consist of two sessions: A masterclass and a workshop. Each session will be 1/2 to 1 hour long. Photos may be taken at this festival for use on the EMTA website and Facebook.

Festival/Workshop Registration Fee: $40 for one 5 minute or less piece. $50 for one 6-10 minute piece
Festival and Workshop Date and Time: October 11, 2025 from 8:30AM to 6:00PM
Festival and Workshop Venue: Edmonds Lutheran Church, 23525 84th Ave W, Edmonds, WA 98026.

MASTERCLASS
Each student will perform one jazz, rags, or blues piece. During the masterclass, the visiting artist will work with each student as well as write a brief evaluation. The adjudicator may recognize exceptional student performances by placing a gold seal on their certificate. Only memorized pieces are eligible for a gold seal. Certificates will be mailed to the student’s teacher after the festival. At the conclusion of the festival the adjudicator will select up to three best of festival awards for junior (ages 12 and under) and senior (ages 13+) levels with up to three alternates for each. All best of festivals need to come across as authentically in the style of jazz, rags or blues. Students receiving a best of festival will perform and be awarded a trophy at the 2026 EMTA Awards Gala in June. Results will be posted on the website after teachers and students are made aware of them by email.

Masterclass Requirements for Participation:

  1. Pieces must be works representing the Jazz, Rags or Blues styles. These include but are not limited to pieces from method book series (i.e. Martha Mier, Nancy and Randall Faber, etc.), original transcriptions (i.e. Chick Corea, Art Tatum), and improvisations based on lead sheets.
  2. Memorization is encouraged but not required. Only memorized pieces will be eligible for gold seals.
  3. Performance and workshop times will be held between 8:30AM – 6:00PM. Time requests and changes may be considered but cannot be guaranteed. Students will be scheduled in groups according to age or level for a maximum of 1.75 hour duration (up to 1 hour masterclass, up to 45 minute workshop).
  4. Festival/Workshop Registration Fee: $40 per student for one 5 minute or less piece, $50 for one 6-10 minute piece. Only one piece is permitted due to time constraints.
  5. Registration will be completed on the EMTA website (edmondsmusicteachers.org) and is due no later than midnight on September 30, 2025. Please note the style of your piece on the registration form, whether it is a Rag, Blues or Jazz piece and whether or not you are improvising music based on a lead sheet.

WORKSHOP –
The workshop will consist of group activities and exercises on the keyboard exploring an aspect of jazz or blues.

Visiting Artist Bios

Masterclass Visiting Artist: John Sanders

John Sanders is entering his 23rd year as full-time faculty at Edmonds College where he teaches two years of music theory and directs the Jazz & Salsa Band. John is a working jazz pianist and is grateful to have been a student of jazz educators Dave Barduhn and John Moawad. Although perfectly at home with straight-ahead swing, John has developed an affinity for Latin and groove styles. His eternal-student mentality continues to take him on musical journeys to different cultures and locales to study new instruments and genres. In January, 2026, John will embark on a six-month study sabbatical in Brazil.

Masterclass Visiting Artist: Elliot Gray

Oregon born and Washington raised, Elliot Gray has been a member of the PNW music community in many forms. Primarily trained in Classical and Jazz piano performance, Elliot is a multi-instrumentalist, having performed tuba and brass for over a decade, and regularly plays guitar, bass, drum set, accordion and percussion, to name a few. He’s experienced performing a multitude of genres, and performs regularly in several groups, including Good Times Roll: A Tribute to The Cars.

Elliot is as avid an educator as performer, having been recently named Outstanding Educator of the Year for his work teaching elementary General music in the Northshore School District. He is passionate in leading his students to develop applicable musical skills, confidence in music making and discussion, and fostering a lifelong love for music. Elliot has taught a full studio of private piano students, managed jazz bands, guest conducted honor groups, and given workshops for state and local music education communities.

Workshop Artist: Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor is a pianist, music educator, and performer living in Snoqualmie, Washington. Before opening his private piano studio in 2024, Dan served the Snoqualmie Valley as a middle school band director for ten years.

Dan earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Central Washington University. As a member of the internationally acclaimed CWU Jazz Band, Dan performed nationally and internationally at major festivals and conferences such as the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz Education Network Conference, WIBC and many other local tours and festivals. As a band director in the SVSD, Dan attended the Essentially Ellington Festival in New York and the Midwest Clinic in Chicago with the critically acclaimed Mount Si High School Jazz Band. Dan has performed with many of the Seattle area’s top big bands and musicians, and has appeared on stage with jazz luminaries such as Ingrid Jensen, Terell Stafford, and Nancy King. Dan is in demand as a clinician and guest artist and often works with students of all ages across Washington state in the areas of classical and jazz piano, jazz band, jazz choir, concert band, and as an accompanist for both large ensembles and soloists.