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After working hard all year, the Memorial High School Jazz Orchestra is ready to show Victoria what they can do.

On Thursday, the students, under the leadership of director Adam Ardner, will give their culminating performance of the school year at the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts.

The show will feature guest artists and the premiere of a tune commissioned specially for the orchestra, Ardner said.

“It should be really cool. We’ve got one of my heroes as a guest artist, so I’ll be drooling and the kids are really excited about it,” he said. “It’s been a long time since Victoria has had a musician of that caliber in the area.”

Ardner’s hero is renowned bass player Steve Bailey. Twice a runner-up for the Bass Player of the Year Award, Bailey has played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Jethro Tull, Willie Nelson and Jon Anderson, according to his Web site.

The other guest artist will be Freddie Mendoza, a trombone player and director of jazz studies at Texas State University at San Marcos.

The composition the jazz orchestra is debuting is called “Cruisin’ With Pablo” and was written by composer Rick Stitzel for the orchestra.

Other pieces in the lineup include “Magic Flea,” “Land of Make Believe” and “Movin’ In Style,” Ardner said.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com.