★ Each ensemble must have a minimum of 4 student vocalists.

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★ Ensembles in the Vocal Jazz – A Capella Group may not use any accompaniment whatsoever.

Directors may use a pitch pipe or piano to establish pitches prior to each performance selection.  Directors may not sing along with their ensembles, however, are able to direct their ensembles in the appropriate manner.

★ Music selections, quantity of selections, and styles are all at the discretion of the directors. However, there should be a clear jazz influence.  

It is not mandatory, however ,varied styles/selections are suggested.  Our adjudicators want to see what you do well and how much you can do well!  

The only limitation is the 20 minutes of performance time allotted for each group.

★ The NJF Non-Compete division receives the same performance opportunities as the Competitive divisions, but your adjudication score is not listed on the post festival recap.

It enables the director to use the adjudicated score as a method of growth for your ensemble. 

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★ Schools may enter more than one ensemble in the Vocal Small & Large Division.

If a school registers more than one ensemble, those ensembles will be in the same division. All Ensembles will be received in order of registration. For schools that have more than one ensemble and wish not to compete against their own school, they can choose to perform in the non-competitive division.

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Each performing group will be placed in the appropriate division by school population.

As the festival has grown so popular, NJF may over ride division school size placement in the additional divisions if due to the number of performing ensembles, travel time scheduling and NJF additional program participation.

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★ All ensembles are allotted a maximum of 20 minutes of performance time.

Each ensemble will be timed from the first note of their first performance selection until the final cut-off of their final performance selection.

Ensembles may not “restart” their performance for any reason. Once the clock starts it will continue to run. The 20 minutes of performance time is finite.

Any ensemble exceeding the 20-minute performance time will be automatically disqualified. A timing of 19:59 or 20:00 is acceptable, however a timing of 20:01 is not.

KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PERFORMANCE TIME.

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After your performance time & commentary, you will have exactly 5 minutes to remove all belongings from the performance area as the next ensemble will be entering to begin their set up – warm up session. Taking longer than 5 minutes may lead to disqualification.