Jane Sylvester - 2010 Helen Kilduff-Elizabeth Elia Scholarship Winner

Eighteen year old Connecticut musician, Jane Sylvester, has been studying the alto saxophone for the past ten years. Her first saxophone teachers were Dorthea Jones, formerly of St. Paul School in Kensington, CT, and Charles Calderone, of Berlin Music Center. Currently, she studies classical saxophone with Professor Carrie Koffman at the Hartt School of Music and Mrs. Beverly Brown at the Hartt School Community Division. Jane is also a private student of jazz saxophonist & educator, Mr. John Mastroianni. She began performing professionally at the age of fourteen.

Jane has held first chair alto saxophone positions in high school Regional, All-State and All-New England Bands. She has won numerous music awards and scholarships, among which include; the 2009 Musical Club of Hartford High School Scholarship for wind instruments, a 2010 Hartford Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition scholarship, and now the 2010 Helen Kilduff-Elizabeth Elia Music Scholarship Award from the New Britain Symphony Orchestra.

Jane has given solo concerts at the Hartford Public Library for their reopening and promotion of their Jazz Studies collection and at the Talcott Mountain Music Festival as a pre-concert performer for the Hartford Symphony. She has performed as a soloist in Berlin High School Recitals, the West Hartford Summer Concert Series, the Hartt Winds, Brass & Percussion Sr. Honors Recitals, for Master Class with Maestro Edward Cumming, of the Hartford Symphony, and for Master Class with Maestro Eric Dudley, of the Cincinnati Symphony. Jane has presented Saxophone Recitals in the Connor Chapel at Saint Joseph College, in June of both 2008 and 2009, and on June 7, 2010, Jane will be presenting her Senior Recital at the Berkman Recital Hall of the Hartt School of Music.

Jane is a four year member of the Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Conductor Glen Adsit. As their principal saxophonist, she traveled with the group during the summer of 2008 on a European Performance Tour of Germany and Austria. Also in 2008, Jane graduated from the Hartt Performer’s Certificate Program, directed by Professor Donna Menhart. In addition to being an active member of the Berlin High School Marching Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band, Jane has performed with the Hartt Chamber Music Saxophone Ensembles, the Glastonbury Towne Band, the Wallingford “R” Band, the Stamford Young Artists Jazz Workshop Ensemble, the Nutmeg Symphony Orchestra, the New Britain Symphony, the Leo Liddle Big Band, the Sylvester-Romao Jazz Duo, and the University of Michigan Saxophone Institute Ensemble. Upcoming is a performance with the Hartford Pops at Riverfest 2010.

In the fall of 2010, Jane will be entering Michigan State University, to pursue her music studies, under the direction of Professor Joseph Lulloff, and majoring in Music Education and Saxophone Performance.