Chicago jazz legend pianist Willie Pickens will serve as teacher and Ravinia President and CEO (and pianist) Welz Kauffman will be one of his students—joining an ensemble of the best high-school jazz players from Chicago Public Schools—in a jazz master class open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, in Room L060 of the Chicago Performing Arts Building on the UIC campus at 1040 W. Harrison St. The ensemble will also include alumni of Ravinia’s Jazz Scholars program, including one who is now a CPS band director. The entertaining Pickens will publicly critique the ensemble and hone their performance as they work their way through a song. Every year Ravinia selects the best high school players to form the Jazz Scholars, an ensemble that studies and plays real gigs with jazz professionals as part of Ravinia’s REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.