Traveling from Washington State, USA the Ellensburg Big Band is super excited to return to the Christchurch Big Band Festival! Founded in 2011 the group is an overlapping Venn diagram of music educators, Central Washington University Jazz alumni, passionate amateurs, and various professionals all within a big happy circle of "those who just love to make music together".

The band performs regularly at jazz festivals, swing dances, public concerts and private events all over Washington State as well as internationally in Japan in 2014 and New Zealand in 2019. We consider ourselves so fortunate to have the opportunity to return to your beautiful country and reconnect with friends in NZ!

Ellensburg Big Band has long benefitted from the talent of the Central Washington University Jazz program in our hometown. On this current NZ adventure, we are thrilled to have Chris Bruya, Emeritus Professor of Music and former Director of CWU Jazz Studies, travelling with us and sharing his energy and expertise. Prof. Bruya’s CWU Jazz 1 big band placed first at the Next Generation Monterey Jazz Festival in 2015 and has been widely considered to be one of the best university big bands in the USA.