Laconia High School student to perform in Jazz All-State Band

LACONIA — Milos Nevajdic, a junior at Laconia High School, is one of four tenor saxophone players accepted into the New Hampshire Music Educators' Association's Jazz All-State Band. Milos, 16, was relieved and happy to be accepted.

“This is the first time I feel like I've gotten recognition [for] the effort that I've put into saxophone, other than, like, you know, playing solos, and then they say your name and stuff,” he said.

All-State Jazz invites students across the Granite State to audition for two bands. To get into one of the bands, students perform before a room of judges, some soloing, and play a standard tune. Students who are accepted receive music to learn ahead of the festival, Feb. 6-8, 2025, at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. There, they rehearse together, then perform the tunes.

Milos was nervous after the audition, as music like jazz, he thinks, can be hard to judge.

“For jazz music, just because of the nature of the music, how open ended it is, there's so many interpretations people can draw from the music,” he said. So you don't really know what the judges are going to say about you.”

Laconia High School Music Director Krin Monterose teaches Milos in her jazz and concert bands, and said he’s a talented musician. She also highlighted Milos as one of many LHS students who have been selected for Jazz All-State and other student festivals and competitions.

Milos’ father Ratko Nevajdic and mother Anita Joka said they were proud of their son’s accomplishment. They said he tried out as a sophomore, but didn’t get in. They were not all that surprised when he was accepted this year. They said Milos practices two to three hours a day and takes private lessons. Milos practices so much that sounds of the saxophone are part of their daily life.

“It’s just normal to us now,” Ratko said. “If you know he's gone with school somewhere, or doing something, and then you don't hear it, it's weird, a little bit.”

Milos acknowledged how much he practices, and is grateful his parents permit it, especially before bedtime.

“They've had to deal with the really loud tenor saxophone at like, 8 p.m.,” he said. “I kind of do feel bad practicing sometimes, but they dealt with it, and I'm really thankful for that.”

Milos has been playing sax since the fourth grade. He said despite his love for it now, he hasn't always enjoyed it. He didn’t love the music he played in fourth grade, like "Hot Cross Buns." It wasn’t until he joined the seventh grade jazz band that he started to love playing.

“Seventh grade-ish is when I really started listening to jazz music,” Milos said. “And that was the moment for me, the year for me, that I kind of really switched entirely from like, hating the saxophone to like, ‘I really like this music now. I gotta really dig into it.’”

Since then, Milos hasn’t put down his instrument. Two years ago, he started learning electric bass. His mother said sometimes she tells Milos to stop practicing, including once when he was sick.

“Especially if he has a sore throat, I'll go down and say, ‘Hey, maybe you take a break today from practicing,'” she said.

Milos was inspired by one of his favorite saxophone players, Eric Alexander, who gave a masterclass at the University of New Hampshire.

“Sitting in that room, like, literally inches away from this guy that's just playing stuff that comes to his mind. It's like I can feel what he's thinking,” he said. “It feels like I can tell what he's feeling.”

Milos’ parents aren't musicians, but Joka said she listened to different types of music while she was pregnant with him, and wonders if that helped spur his talent as a musician.

“Classical music and different types of music, it helps stimulate the baby development,” she said.

Milos’ parents moved to the United States 25 years ago from Serbia, which at that time was part of former Yugoslavia. They are happy to see their son do well, with saxophone and in school, where Milos achieved high honors. They believe this country has provided Milos and his brother a lot of opportunity.

“It's a ton of opportunities here for both of them,” Ratko said. “Laconia, it's a small community and everything, it's still a lot of opportunities.”

Milos is already considering going to college to study either jazz performance or composition. His top school is Berklee College of Music in Boston. He thanked his private teacher, Andrew Emanuel, and his parents and family for supporting him up until this point, and hopes to continue with his music. All-State is only the beginning.

“It's kind of like the start, because I kind of want to keep going into music for the rest of my life.”