Jazz music holds a special place in Mara Queen’s heart. Queen is a senior at Lutheran High School South, and this summer, she took the next step in her journey as a jazz musician by attending a five-week performance intensive at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“It basically simulates what it’s like to go to Berklee College,” Queen said. “They have basic music theory classes, as well as different combos and ensembles.”
Queen, a bassist, heard about the opportunity through Adam Countryman, a musician and Berklee alumnus who has played at Lutheran South in the past. When talking with him about her future plans, Countryman asked if she’d ever considered attending the Berklee College of Music after high school. He mentioned that this five-week intensive might be a way of getting her foot in the door.
As part of the program, Queen had the chance to take semester-long Berklee courses that were adapted to fit the five-week intensive. She also was involved in two specialty ensembles — the Jazz All-Stars Ensemble and the Great Women Composers and Songwriters Ensemble.
“The (Great Women Composers and Songwriters Ensemble) wasn’t all women, but we played only music written by women, which is cool,” Queen said. “There’s not a whole lot of women in jazz, so it was fun to play only women-composed music.”
She added, “There were a couple of big performances in the last week in the Berklee Performance Center. It was really cool. It was a big venue. I hadn’t played in a venue that big before, so it was really awesome to see — and really nerve-wracking, to see all the people.”
But this wasn’t the first time that Queen has played before a crowd. This is her second year being part of the Jazz St. Louis’ JazzU All-Stars: a local program that allows students to play occasional gigs around the city. Queen says she has played at Powell Hall and art fairs, though her favorite was playing at the St. Louis Art Museum in December.
Queen started playing jazz in middle school after her band director suggested she try it out. She says she fell in love with it, and she’s honed her craft ever since. She first got involved in JazzU in the summer before her freshman year and has since advanced through the program’s “combos” — musical groups that are sorted by skill and experience.
“With jazz, I like not having to be told what to do,” Queen said. “I like the creative freedom.”
In the future, she has her eyes set on becoming a jazz composer. Queen loves to arrange music — something she’s had the chance to do for bands at Lutheran South. She has entered her music into competitions, and her piece “Sapphire Guy” won in the Jazz Lead Sheet category of the 2026 Creating Original Music Project (COMP) K-12 Competition at the University of Missouri. The university band then learned and performed her piece.
“It was so awesome,” Queen said. “Whenever I write things, I just hear my song on my laptop with all the mini files. Hearing a real live band do it makes it sound completely different. I can write whatever, but they’re the ones that make it sound good.”
Queen’s dream job is to be a full-time composer, writing commissioned music. This could include creating compositions to be used by middle or high school bands.
“I like people’s reactions,” Queen said about composing. “My whole goal is to make people react in some way — dancing, singing along. If I’m writing something more serious, I like seeing people feel it emotionally. That part is a lot of fun for me.”
