Jazz Meets the Classics, co-presented by the Kennedy Center on June 4th, will feature an all-star lineup performing unique and exciting jazz interpretations of works by Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. Headlining the concert is the Classical Jazz Quartet, with NEA Jazz Masters bassist Ron Carter and pianist Kenny Barron, vibraphonist Stefon Harris and drummer Lewis Nash. Also headlining is NEA Jazz Master and 10-time Grammy Award-winner Paquito D'Rivera, joined by Spain’s Pepe Rivero Trio, Michael Phillip Mossman and Pernell Saturnino.
The highly popular Jazz in the ‘Hoods program highlights the innovative CapitalBop D.C. Jazz Loft, Bohemian Caverns, and more than 80 performances at over 40 museums, clubs, restaurants, hotels, and galleries across the city. Presented by Events DC, the annual series attracts a large and diverse audience and showcases many DC-based jazz groups at venues like the Atlas Performing Arts Center and Gallery O on H. Performers include Loide, Michael Thomas, Mark Prince, and Rodney Richardson with Lena Seikaly. The D.C. Jazz Loft Series – which added a new, edgy, innovative dimension to last year's Festival – returns for its second year with performances from some of the nation’s most renowned, boundary-pushing musicians. It will span three days and include a daylong mini-festival on June 9th. The series will feature Marc Cary’s Cosmic Indigenous; Tarbaby, featuring Orrin Evans, Nasheet Waits. Eric Revis; and the Todd Marcus Nonet.
The widely-admired, free annual Jazz ‘n’ Families Fun Days at The Phillips Collection on Saturday, June 2nd and Sunday, June 3rd will treat families to enjoyable, enriching art-inspired performances from some of the finest musicians from around the region, including Marianne Solivan, Victor Provost, the Herman Burney Trio, and the Elijah Jamal Balbed Quartet.
Jazz at the Hamilton, the Festival’s main venue, will feature 10 nights of performances with such noted artists as Randy Weston, Monty Alexander, the Brass-A-Holics Go-Go Brass Funk Band with the legendary Chuck Brown as a special guest, Roy Hargrove, Jimmy Heath, David Sanchez, Les Nubians, Antonio Hart, Cyrus Chestnut, Jon Batiste, Ben Williams, Etienne Charles, John Scofield, Roberta Gambarini, Charlie Sepulveda, Akua Allrich and Marshall Keys, as well as Jazz Gospel brunches with the WPAS Gospel Choir and Lori Williams.
Jazz at the Howard celebrates the tradition of jazz in D.C. at the newly restored and reopened historic Howard Theatre. Headline artists include multiple Grammy Award-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and famed Italian guitarist Pino Daniele.
Other highlights of the 2012 Festival include a performance by the dazzling Israeli clarinetist and saxophonist Anat Cohen at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, as well as six concerts co-presented by the Kennedy Center at the Millennium Stage featuring artists such as Malika Zara, the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, and Origem, among others.
Proud major sponsors and partners of the DC Jazz Festival, to date, include Events DC; ABC 7-TV/WJLA/NewsChannel 8; Patton Boggs LLP; Sage Communications; The Washington Post; Microsoft Corporation, The Phillips Collection; Linda and Michael Sonnenreich; the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; the Washington Marriott Wardman Park; The Washington City Paper; Verizon; the Mayo Charitable Foundation; LCG Systems; Bacardi USA; Destination DC; Dworbell Inc.; DownBeat; Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck; Amtrak; Metro; and the NEA Foundation, among others.
Keep up with the DCJF: Twitter: @dcjazzfest; Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dcjazzfest; Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcjazzfest/; FourSquare: https://foursquare.com/dcjazzfest
About the DC Jazz Festival: With over 100 performances in nearly 50 venues, the DC Jazz Festival (DCJF) is the largest music festival in Washington, D.C. A project of Festivals DC, Ltd., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, the DCJF is one of the most highly-anticipated cultural events in the nation’s capital. The Festival has garnered widespread media acclaim, and has quickly become recognized within the global jazz community. The DCJF presents year-round programs with performances featuring local, nationally and internationally acclaimed artists that promote music integration in school curricula, and actively support community outreach to expand and diversify its audience of jazz enthusiasts. The 2012 DC Jazz Festival will take place June 1 - 10.
The DC Jazz Festival® is a project of Festivals DC, Ltd., a 501 (c)(3) non-profit service organization. The DC Jazz Festival is sponsored in part with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. NEA Jazz Masters Live is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
