CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Amidst an already packed spring semester, the Albemarle High School Jazz Band is preparing for its annual “Swing Into Spring” benefit concert at The Paramount Theater this Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

The annual concert, which the band first put together in 2018, has become a staple of this calendar, with guest performers from Charlottesville and Richmond regularly joining in. The event has been held as a benefit concert for a local nonprofit since 2020, with Stepping Stone, a Charlottesville-based organization that provides baby essentials to families in need, being selected as this year’s beneficiary.

“I want them to figure out how to use music as a way to connect with the community and the area that they live in,” AHS Band Director Andrew LaPrade told Cville Right Now. “So, when they graduate, potentially they can keep playing their instrument and using it in ways to help other people.”

The concert began in 2018 under then-Band Director Greg Thomas as a way to raise funds to send the Jazz Band to the Savannah Swing Central Jazz Festival in Savannah, Ga. The band qualified for the festival again the following year, and the concert subsequentially returned for a second year.

But in 2020, LaPrade first year as band director, the program decided to do the concert again, this time fundraising for a nonprofit rather than a specific trip.

“It was like, ‘Well. the pieces are all there. So, let’s keep this going because it’s really like a cool collaboration with local musicians,'” he said. “So, then we decided to do it as a benefit concert.”

The 2020 concert was canceled due to COVID but was brought back in 2022 and has been held every year since. Along the way, it has become a staple of the Jazz Band’s school year.

Senior flute player Arushi Gautam, who is in her third year with the band, told Cville Right Now she enjoys working with the guest musicians each year, like Richmond-based tenor saxophonist Charles Owens and Thomas, the aforementioned former AHS band director.

“It’s super cool to come together with them every year,” she said, “and they have seen us progress and change throughout the years, so they’re always there to give helpful and tips.”

Students also said, as LaPrade had hoped, they felt more connected to the Charlottesville community through the concert. Senior alto saxophone player Megan Taylor told Cville Right Now that it’s been nice to talk with representatives from Stepping Stone and see local businesses offer to sponsor the event or make donation to its raffle.

“I think it helps some of the students realize that the music we play in the band that we’re in can actually reach more than just people at the school,” she said. “And the things that we do help more than just, ‘We’re playing in a high school band.'”

LaPrade said the best way for people to support the concert is to simply come to it, as the money raised for Stepping Stone comes through ticket sales, with sponsorships helping offset the cost of using The Paramount. The band’s goal is to raise $5000 for Stepping Stone.

Overall, students expressed excitement over this concert, with senior tenor sax player Nate Paul calling it “the jazz band’s big way to bring our music to the community.”

“This is really the big one, where we’re able to go out to Charlottesville,” he said, “and it’s the jazz band’s way to show the community everything that we’re capable of in a variety of different genres. And at the same time, we’re doing it to help the community through the benefit aspect of it.”