Carmel High School senior Michael Clarke knows this is a special opportunity for his band.
Clarke is the keyboardist for Europa, which will play on the Carter Green stage at 9 p.m. Aug. 10 in the Carmel Jazz Festival, which starts Aug. 9.
“The whole point of this band is to get us out there and get experience with playing, especially jazz,” Clarke said. “Playing at Jazz Fest is the culmination of that. It started with us wanting to get our names out there and play music. The fact we’re able to play in front of so many skilled musicians, it’s exactly what we were aiming to do. Even if we don’t play like a perfect concert, we’ll be able to watch others. We’ll get feedback and we’ll show we really do care about this kind of art.”
Clarke recently was on a School of Rock All-Stars tour of the Midwest.
The group includes 2024 CHS graduate Sam Rubin on guitar, along with Clarke and fellow CHS seniors Ben Krowiak, drums, and Tarek Osman, saxophone. Zionsville Community High School junior Gus Brown plays bass guitar.
Rubin, Clarke, Osman and Krowiak got together to play jazz tunes about two years ago.
“We were making slow progress for a year, and we ended up playing at our school’s Jazz a la Mode concert in 2023, which was a lot of fun,” Clarke said. “It was fun, but it didn’t sound amazing.”
Clarke invited Brown to join the band about a year ago.
“Having a bassist helped us fill out some of our sounds,” he said.
Brown joined Europa for the Jazz a la Mode concert at CHS this spring. He also was selected for the School of Rock All-Star tour and recently returned from a tour of Florida.
Clarke said they plan to continue as Europa as Rubin is attending Purdue University and should be able to join them for performances.
“I’m going to Purdue next year and none of us are planning to go too far away to college, so we’re planning to keep this going,” Clarke said. “It’s been a lot of fun and it’s much more successful than we ever thought it would be.”
At the Carmel Jazz Festival, CHS junior Delilah Seal will join the band to sing Erroll Garner’s “Misty.” Clarke said it’s a 30-minute set, so Europa is planning to perform six songs.
“We’ve narrowed down to playing the best of the best songs we know how to play,” Clarke said.
The name Europa is derived from the name of one of Jupiter’s moons.
“It’s why our logo is an astronaut,” Clarke said.
The Aug. 10 program also will feature The Jazz Professors at 9:30 p.m. on the Carter Green stage.
The group includes college professors Mark Buselli, Ball State University; Tom Walsh, Indiana University; Mark O’Connor, University of Indianapolis; and Matt Pivec, Butler University.
“The four of us will be performing with an all-star student from one of our student combos,” said Buselli, who is director of jazz studies at BSU and is a northside Indianapolis resident.
Buselli plays trumpet and the rest of the professors play saxophone. The students will play piano, guitar, drums and bass guitar.
Buselli said the same four professors played together last year in the inaugural Carmel Jazz Festival.
“The experience was wonderful, especially for the students,” Buselli said. “They played to packed houses. They were very excited that people were actually listening to them and clapping. The energy was really nice.”
The Indiana University and Ball State combos will play 90-minute sets Aug. 10 at the Studio Theater in the Center for the Performing Arts. The University of Indianapolis and Butler jazz combos play Aug. 9 at the Studio Theater.
“It’s great for the students because they have to (have) a rehearsal schedule, they have to figure out as a group what music to play and who is playing on what songs,” Buselli said. “It’s a learning experience.”
For the schedule, visit carmeljazzfest.org.
