Set on a boardwalk next to Lake Geneva and overlooking the French Alps, the Montreux Jazz Festival is one of two of the biggest jazz festivals in Europe, along with the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland.

The Texas State jazz ensemble directed by Freddie Mendoza has performed in the North Sea festival as well as in Italy and is ready to perform in Montreux. The ensemble participated in the prestigious University of North Texas Jazz Festival and the Notre Dame Jazz Festival, where they received numerous outstanding musicianship awards.  Concerts in San Antonio and Austin clubs and Texas high schools during each semester are a method of training for live performance for the jazz ensemble students. Mendoza said performing at events of all levels bodes well for Texas State’s students and potential students.

“When I can tell incoming freshmen or potential incoming freshmen we go to Europe or Notre Dame and compete in a national level I think that’s attractive. It is a sense of waking up the country to the fact that we have an outstanding jazz and multicultural program,” he said. “We’re finally starting to get a lot of students who come here because they want to study jazz.” 

Mendoza also said that the best thing about the invitation to Montreux was the opportunity it provides for students to travel overseas and learn about music and culture of many countries. 

“This festival is more of a world music festival because it has music from all over the world.  Most of the students in the ensembles have never traveled to Europe. As far as the playing stand point it will be a great experience because there will be tremendous musicians there,” he said.