A week in the life of Ike student musician Christian Bush – performances with Grammy Winners, America’s Got Talent star, jazz honor orchestra concerts, a statewide competition and a local concert

Eisenhower High School Junior, Christian Bush, jazz bassist, is having quite a busy week.

Bush, a member of the Eisenhower’s wind ensemble and symphonic, jazz and Marching bands, is performing in six different prestigious concerts this week.

“I always find the best moments happen when I'm on stage performing,” he said. “There's a certain energy that comes with a live audience, and amplification, in a room with acoustics different than what I’m used to.”

On Saturday, he and his jazz quartet, 26 Cents Flat (@official_26centsflat), performed with America’s Got Talent runner-up, Ava Swiss (Oxford High School Class of 2022), at 20 Front Street in Lake Orion for two sold-out shows.

The next night, Bush performed with the University of Michigan’s Youth Honors Jazz Orchestra at Zal Gaz Grotto in Ann Arbor. You can catch the performance on YouTube.

On Wednesday night, two nights later, the U of M Youth Honors Jazz Orchestra performed their end-of-year concert at Rackham Auditorium at U of M.

Today, March 24, Bush is leading two jazz combos with music he arranged at the MSBOA State Jazz Festival hosted at Eisenhower High School.

Immediately after that, he races off to downtown Detroit to the Orchestra Hall to perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchcestra’s Civic Youth Ensemble Jazz Orchestra to open up for eight-time Grammy-winning jazz bassist, Christian McBride, (@chrmcbride) who was called, “One of the most important and omnipresent figures in the jazz world for twenty years,” by NPR. Christian will also attend a masterclass taught by McBride before his group performs.

Bush will end his week on Saturday when he and his quartet, 26 Cents Flat, perform at Homegrown Brewing Company in Oxford from 6:30 to 9:30.

“The musical experiences I've been having are very exciting, especially playing with my Jazz quartet, 26 Cents Flat, Michigan Youth Honors Jazz Orchestra (MYJO) directed by UM professor Dennis Wilson, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Civic Youth Ensemble Jazz Orchestra (CJO) directed by Wayne State University Professor Vincent Chandler and Oakland Youth Orchestra (Classical Orchestra),” he said.