PLAYING BEFORE AN APPRECIATIVE AUDIENCE––Making music at Sunrise Senior Living in Westlake Village is the Conejo Valley Jazz Community Service Ensemble. They played last Sunday. The Conejo Valley’s Jazz Community Service Ensemble performed a holiday jazz concert for the residents of Sunrise Senior Living in Westlake Village on Dec. 6. The senior residents were treated to holiday jazz tunes.

The jazz ensemble is a volunteer student-run group that performs jazz concerts for those in the community. The target audience includes the aging, sick and those with financial hardship.

Most of the members of the jazz ensemble have played together since elementary and middle school, and were members of the award-winning Lindero Canyon Middle School Jazz Band that won first place at the Reno Jazz Festival in April. The students attend Westlake and Agoura high schools. The director is Lindero Canyon music teacher Matt Finders.

The musicians who performed are Andrew McKagan on tenor saxophone, Austin Carango on drums, Dara Karbassioon on alto saxophone, Devon McNeil on trumpet, Duncan Murray on guitar, Hannah Finders on bass and Julia Farfan on trombone.

The ensemble’s next community service project will be on Feb. 20 at the Los Angeles Mission. The group will participate in the AdoptA-Meal program, which will include fundraising and preparing and serving lunch to 500 homeless people. The event will end with a jazz concert. In addition, the musicians will collect and donate gently used coats and new undergarments to the homeless.