LAKEWOOD — At Lakewood High School’s first attempt at a competitive vocal jazz festival, the jazz choir placed third at the prestigious Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival April 18

The group travelled to south of Eugene, Ore. to compete in the festival. Pleasant Hill is a large festival that has been going for 34 years. There were more than 1,800 participants in 60 groups competing in five divisions.

Lakewood was the only new group to the competition this year.

“I am so proud to tell you that we are bringing home the third-place trophy,” said the school’s new choir teacher, Katy Trapp.

“Also each division has two soloist awards. Junior Shelbey Jackson received one of the two soloist awards in our division for her piano playing.”

Trapp’s first year as Lakewood’s band, choir, and jazz choir conductor has been nothing short of exceptional.

Trapp grew up in Oregon and attended Warner Pacific College in Portland. Just last month she was selected to be a part of a choir chosen by Dr. Thomas Miller, Trapp’s choral and conducting professor at Warner Pacific College, who had been invited to be a guest conductor at Carnegie Hall.

He was invited to choose his own 150-person choir to go with him and Trapp was selected to be part of the choir. They performed Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Mass In Time of War” in C Major, also known as the “Drumroll Mass,” a 40-minute mass in Latin. They were accompanied by the New England Symphony and had a soloist from the New York Metropolitan Opera. They received a standing ovation and were asked to return for another performance in two years

To catch Lakewood’s jazz and concert choir in action, their finale concert of the year will be on Monday, June 1 at the Lakewood High School Theater.

The band will also perform in the theater on Thursday, June 4.