Columbia, SC, June 6, 2023 – Benedict College proudly announced today that the Benedict College Marching Tiger Band of Distinction Band Director, H. Wade Johnson, and Assistant Director, Ronald Green, have been invited to participate in the 21st Annual Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 2023 Band Director’s Academy. The Academy will be held in New York City at Frederick P. Rose Hall from June 22-25, 2023. Johnson and Green received full tuition and travel scholarships for the four-day professional development session.
“I am immensely proud of H. Wade Johnson and Ronald Green for their many accomplishments with the Benedict College Jazz Ensemble,” said Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President and CEO of Benedict College. “Our faculty are among the BEST in jazz education and performance.”
In February, The Benedict Jazz Ensemble traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, to compete against nine jazz ensembles from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The competition winner received an opportunity to open for jazz great Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Benedict College and Norfolk State University won the competition that was judged by Marsalis and other musicians from his group.
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About the Benedict College Jazz Ensemble
The Benedict College Jazz Ensemble consists of talented Benedict College Band Program musicians. Under the leadership of H. Wade Johnson and Ronald T. Green, the Jazz Ensemble sets the standard for other performing groups and embodies the BEST of BC. They have toured the state of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida. They have performed for jazz greats like Wynton Marsalis and Fred Wesley. The Benedict College Jazz Ensemble won a jazz competition hosted by Wynton Marsalis in February 2023.
About Benedict College (benedict.edu)
Founded in 1870 by a woman, Bathsheba A. Benedict, Benedict College is a private co-educational liberal arts institution, offering 26 competitive baccalaureate degree programs. The Midlands HBCU welcomes students from all 46 counties in South Carolina, 30 states across America, and 26 countries around the world. The College also has a diverse faculty and importantly, 80 percent of courses are taught by full-time faculty.
Benedict College has been highly regarded and exceptionally ranked for its programs by several academic and traditional publications. For example, Benedict College was ranked as one of the top baccalaureate colleges in the nation by Washington Monthly magazine for creating social mobility and producing cutting-edge scholarship and research. In 2019, Benedict College received the 2019 ACE/ Fidelity Investments Awards for Institutional Transformation and was named the HBCU of the Year by HBCU Digest. Benedict College was listed among the top half of ranked HBCUs in the 2022 edition of Best Colleges by US News and World Report.
Benedict College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate and master’s degrees. Six of the College’s degree programs hold national accreditation: The School of Education, Social Work Program, Environmental Health Science Program, Environmental Engineering Program, Studio Art Program, and the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship.
