You may remember the first Jazz Festival, taking place October 5, 2019 at the Aronoff Center. Over 250 Cincinnati students, grades 4-12, gathered to participate in workshops, masterclasses, and a culminating performance on the mainstage of the Aronoff Center. The evening featured performances from student grounds and an ensemble of professional musicians, including award-winning Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana, Todor Bakardzhiev (Bulgaria), pianist Shamie Royston (New York City), bassist Chris Berg (Dayton, Ohio), and drummer Art Gore (Cincinnati). Over 600 members of the community attended this evening performance. The event was so successful that Activities Beyond the Classroom (ABC) decided to make the event the first of many; the Jazz Festival would be an annual celebration.
A year later, we wrung our hands in anxiety as COVID-19 tore through the city. No international artists would be flying in; no students would get hands-on coaching with their instruments; no unmasked performances would be taking place. We knew our students questioned what the future looked like for Jazz Festival and for their own music instruction. We made ourselves busy connecting students with resources and virtual music instruction, all the while biding our time.
That is, until we got the fateful call: the International Jazz Festival was back. “We were given an unexpected call by the Cincinnati Arts Association sometime in March,” explained Director of Advancement Carmen Lawrence-Bille. “They said they had a date open at the Aronoff and did we want to bring back the Jazz Festival? We took a deep breath, knowing we had only a very short time to pull it all together, and we said yes.”