Two months of musical mentoring reached a crescendo last night at the Chief Sealth International High School auditorium, as the second annual Girls’ Jazz Band – middle-schoolers from around the city – took the stage with the Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra, whose professional musicians have been working with them since January.

15 girls were in the program – here they are performing “Basie-cally The Blues”:

Their mentors performed too – here’s SWOJO with Gershwin’s “Lady Be Good”:

As explained on the orchestra’s website, “The program offers evening rehearsals and a culminating concert for Seattle girl jazz musicians ages 12 and up. SWOJO’s professional musicians and music educators will mentor, lead rehearsals and sectionals, give a master class, and perform a FREE joint concert … The goal is to provide a comfortable and supportive educational opportunity for girls to develop jazz interpretation and improvisation skills within a big band and combo setting.”