The Guilford High School (GHS) Music Department has established the T. Thomas Boates Guest Artist Fund to bring in artists to perform annually. The GHS Jazz Ensemble will host the first of these concerts featuring 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll Winner and Grammy Award winning tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery.

The performance will take place in the GHS Performing Arts Center on Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. The concert will include the GHS Jazz Ensemble with Escoffery as a featured guest soloist and a performance by Escoffery with his small jazz combo under his direction.

Music Department Coordinator Mark Gahm said the concert is “not one to miss” for residents.

"I would love for the whole town to show up for this event not only so that our community can see the amazing work our student musicians are doing, but also for the opportunity to see and hear one of the jazz world's rising stars — a world-class talent who grew up just up the road in New Haven. Mr. Escoffery is a Downbeat Critics Poll and Grammy award-winning artist, and I am very excited to see how our students respond to the opportunity to perform alongside a musician of his calibre,” Gahm said. “In the first half of the concert, Mr. Escoffery will be a featured soloist with the GHS Jazz Ensemble, and in the second half of the concert, he will perform with a small jazz combo that he is putting together especially for this event."

The concert is free and open to the public. Donations to benefit the Guest Artist Fund will be accepted at the door.

Escoffery is 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll Winner and Grammy Award winning tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery. A native of Hamden and an alum of the Educational Center for the Arts and the Hartt School of Music, Escoffery now resides in New York City where has performed with Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Septet, The Mingus Band, Ron Carter's Great Big Band, the Tom Harrell Quintet, Monty Alexander, Amina Figarova, and many others. As an educator, he is currently the saxophone instructor for The New Jersey Performing Arts Wells Fargo Jazz for Teens program, and Lecturer of Jazz Improvisation and ensemble coach at the Yale School of Music.

This event was made possible through donations to the T. Thomas Boates III Guest Artist Fund, named in honor of the former director of the GHS Jazz Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. The fund was established upon his retirement in 2020 and supports efforts to bring professional musicians to work with and perform alongside students in the GHS Music Department. The inaugural event takes place on Friday Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public, donations will be accepted at the door toward the guest artist fund.