Bringing Jazz to Life
With funding provided primarily by the donations of its members, the Seacoast Jazz Society presents, co-sponsors or otherwise supports a number of jazz-related initiatives throughout the year. You can support our programming by becoming a member.
Photo by Richard Lord
SJS Board Member Nate Jorgensen with 2018 SYMS Scholarship winners Addison Daniel and Ryder Jackson
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THE SEACOAST JAZZ SOCIETY LECTURE SERIES This series, free-to-the-public, presents lecturers with expertise in a variety of jazz subjects. Over the years, the series has covered such topics as Big Band Jazz, Boston Jazz History, the History of Jazz Piano Trios, Jazz in Wartime Germany, Art and Jazz, the History of Bebop, the Vibraphone in Jazz, and the music of jazz performers like Django Reinhardt, Billy Strayhorn, John Coltrane, Fletcher Henderson, and others. Recent speakers include Jason Palmer, Yoko Miwa, Rebecca Cline, and Marshall Wood. OUR PUBLICATIONS AND CALENDAR In striving to support both jazz musicians and jazz appreciators on the Seacoast, Seacoast Jazz Society produces two regular email publications: Seacoast Jazz Notes, highlighting upcoming performance events, and Seacoast Jazz Monthly, which presents feature stories, musician profiles, jazz criticism, and more. The Seacoast Jazz Society also hosts and maintains a community calendar of jazz events. THE TOMMY GALLANT JAZZ FESTIVAL Every year, on a Sunday afternoon around the beginning of July, jazz fans from the Seacoast and beyond gather at Portsmouth’s beautiful Prescott Park on the banks of the Piscataqua River to enjoy an afternoon of first-class jazz. This long-running tradition began in 1996 as the Seacoast Jazz Festival, later to be renamed to honor the memory of one of the Seacoast jazz community’s most important figures, the late pianist Tommy Gallant. THE SEACOAST JAZZ APPRECIATION PROJECT The Seacoast Jazz Appreciation Project (SJAP) is one of the Seacoast Jazz Society’s most successful initiatives. Launched in 2009, the series hosts leading jazz artists in free-to-the-public events that combine performance and, importantly, dialog with audience members. SJAP’s objective to enhance the appreciation of jazz for listeners at all levels of musical sophistication, while de-mystifying this uniquely American musical genre for its newest listeners. It’s a chance to “hang” with some outstanding jazz musicians, to hear their music, and about their music, in a casual, club-like environment. Over the years, the Project has presented such jazz luminaries as Kenny Werner, Sheila Jordan, Peter Bernstein, Grace Kelly, and Gary Smulyan, among others. And the series is free to the public. THE SUMMER YOUTH MUSIC SCHOOL (SYMS) Each year, the Seacoast Jazz Society awards a full scholarship to the Summer Youth Music School (SYMS) at the University of New Hampshire to a deserving young music student with an interest in jazz. Shown at left is recent winner of our scholarship Daniel Powers, a trombone student, then at Hillside Middle School in Manchester, New Hampshire. |
