PCS Musicians Perform for the Santa Cruz Community
Mar 10, 2025 | by Ildi Carlisle-Cummins
Anyone who attended our recent spring instrumental music concert knows that Music Teacher Heather Calame inspires PCS musicians to great heights. And those musicians often go out into the Santa Cruz Community to share their talents.
Two excellent PCS musicians (12th grader Sam Nicely on Guitar and 7th Grader Reuben Cave on Piano) are part of this year's prestigious Kuumbwa Jazz Honor Band. If you haven't heard them play, you can catch them at several upcoming community performances:
- Sunday, March 23rd, 2:00 to 3:00 PM at Pono Bar and Grill for the Santa Cruz Jazz Society jam session.
- Saturday, April 5th, 3:00 to 5:00 PM at the Scotts Valley Community Theater.
- Sunday, April 13, 2025 Time TBA at Fisherman’s Wharf Monterey for WhaleFest 2025.
- Wednesday, April 30th, 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Kuumbwa Jazz Center for the Final Concert
- Tuesday, May 13th, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM Scotts Valley Cultural & Performing Arts Center, 251-B Kings Village Rd. Scotts Valley, CA for the William H. Nadeau Memorial Fund promoting and rewarding excellence in jazz performance.
- Sunday, May 18th, Time TBD at Duck Island in San Lorenzo Park for Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
PCS students also performed with Santa Cruz Symphony last week in four exciting Youth Concerts for 4th- and 5th-grade students from throughout Santa Cruz County. Our students (and others) rehearsed until 10pm with the Santa Cruz Symphony on the Tuesday before the concert, playing 2 full concerts back-to-back on Thursday and Friday in each location. On Sunday, March 2, they performed at the Santa Cruz Symphony Family Concert to a sold out event. The students played beautifully and the concerts were free for students. Shout out to the amazingly talented and diligent students who play in the Santa Cruz Youth Symphony: Maya Huet (violin), Jillian Atkinson (violin), Eduardo Elzy Loving (viola), Olivia Chen (clarinet), Leo Lee (clarinet)!