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Sapporo Junior Jazz School (founded in 2000) is a jazz school for children, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The school has about 60 members between 6 and 16 years old.
Biography
Sapporo Junior Jazz School was founded in Sapporo Art Park, managed by Sapporo Cultural Arts Foundation. The aim of the school is to give children possibility to enjoy music, and develop their abilities of self-expression and cooperation with others, through jazz. The school has two big bands, SJF Junior Jazz Orchestra, for primary school students, and Club SJF, for junior high school students.
An audition is held every year, to which about 150 children apply. The children practice together every weekend through the year, and perform at more than 30 public concerts. The school also organizes workshops with foreign and domestic professional musicians. Club SJF is chosen as goodwill ambassador for Sapporo City Jazz, which is the most comprehensive jazz festival in Japan. Since 2006 Club SJF goes abroad every second year, and the band has visited Australia (2006), Canada (2008), China (2010) Norway (2012), Luxembourg (2013) and the US (2014).