Southeast Effective Development and the Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center will join forces for the launch of SEED's 30th annual Concerts in the Park series. The free concert will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 3 at the Seward Park Amphitheatre, 5902 Lake Washington Boulevard. In case of rain, concert will be moved to the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St.
The concert features the award-winning Garfield High School Jazz Band, Washington Middle School Senior Jazz Band and the New School Ensemble. 
Led by Clarence Acox, the Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble has achieved international recognition, receiving first place awards at New York's Essentially Ellington Festival at Lincoln Center and other significant jazz competitions throughout the country.
Under the leadership of Robert Knatt, the Washington Middle School Senior Jazz Band has also taken top honors in the middle school division at events like the Lionel Hampton, Bellevue Community College and Reno jazz festivals. The New School Ensemble, led by Jah Breeze and Erie Jones, is a grad school ensemble focusing on Afro-Caribbean music traditions and instruments including Caribbean Steel Drums, South African marimbas and African Djembe drums. 
Seattle jazz guitarist Michael Powers, a music teacher with the Washington State Artist in Residence program, will perform with the Garfield Jazz Band.
The Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center has worked with more than 425 middle-school science students to create an original field guide to Seward Park. Students from Alki Kurose, Washington and Mercer middle schools and the Secondary Bilingual Orientation center will be on hand to share the guide and take concertgoers on park tours.
The parks department will be offering hayrides around the park every hour from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, call 206-760-4286.
