Playing side by side with professional musicians is not an opportunity many young people get, but for the members of the Warwick Academy Jazz Band, that is exactly what they will be doing on Saturday February 4.As part of the first event this year to celebrate Warwick’s 350th anniversary, the Jazz Band, under the direction of Kent Hayward, will be performing at a gala jazz dinner-dance alongside trombonist Vince Gardner from the Lincoln Center Orchestra.Mr Gardner was part of a world tour with Grammy Award winning hip hop singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. In 2000 he joined the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, with which he continues to perform. As a member of the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, he has contributed many arrangements for various performances of that ensemble. In 2009 he was commissioned by Jazz At Lincoln Center to compose a work entitled “The Jesse B. Semple Suite”, which featured his original compositions intertwined with the short stories of author Langston Hughes featuring his character Jesse B. Semple.As band member Lily Martin noted: “It’s not often that you get the opportunity to work with someone so accomplished in life. We are so grateful to experience this.”“To work with such an experienced musician is unbelievable,” added fellow musician Hayley Francis Cann, “but music tends to that; it brings people together.”The dinner-dance will be held in the school’s Phoebe Purvis Memorial Hall and will feature a buffet dinner, catered by the Fairmont Southampton Resort, and dancing to the live band. The evening will begin with cocktails followed by the buffet dinner, with silent auction items open throughout the evening. When the plates are cleared, Mr Gardner and the senior jazz students will play a variety of music, including sets for dancing.At the intermission dessert will be served and a live auction held, followed by the closing of the silent auction. Then the musicians will play on for the second half of the show. At the end of the evening the winning bids on the silent auction will be announced.Saturday night will not be Mr Gardner’s sole engagement while he is in Bermuda. On the Friday prior he will be conducting workshops for music students from Warwick Academy’s music programme, to which students from other local music programmes have been invited. During Saturday there will be a workshop for local music educators as well.“One of the greatest opportunities in life is to come together and teach each other the universal language of music,” observed band member Dylan Hollis.As Warwick Academy Development officer, Jane Vickers, noted: “He is packing a lot in during his time here. Warwick is his host, but wants to share his amazing talent with all music students and teachers here on the Island.”Tickets for the dinner-dance are $100 per person, and tables of 10 may be booked. Please reserve your table by e-mailing sfitzsimmons[AT]warwickacad.bm