Public Programs

  Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation, Inc.

Program Descriptions

Each CNYJAF season currently consists of:

 Ø      The CNY Jazz Orchestra Concert Series in the Mulroy Civic Center at the Oncenter Carrier Theatre, featuring the CNYJO along with the finest nationally recognized guest artists, who also conduct educational clinics while in residence.

 Ø       The Pascale Black History Month Cabaret Series, featuring guest artists of national repute bringing African America’s unique contribution to our culture to a new generation, in public performance and in colleges across the region.

 Ø       Performances in the schools administered by CNY Jazz Management, an arts-in-education program design and implementation agency within our organization, providing performances supporting school districts and educational presenters across the state.

 Ø       The “Scholastic Jazz Jam” Series, events at which local High School and College students are invited to perform in a supportive environment backed by area professionals, including a special vocal jazz jam and evening cabaret.

 Ø       The “Northeast Jazz and Wine Festival”, a three-day event held during the last weekend in July in Clinton Square, Hanover Square and other locations throughout downtown Syracuse. It includes three outdoor stages, strolling musicians throughout the city, open on-stage master classes and clinics with student groups by guest artists, and downtown nightclub jams mixing touring musicians with local and regional talent.

 Ø       The “Jazz in the City” Neighborhood Outreach Concert Series featuring national and local jazz artists of color at underutilized city park locations in lower-income neighborhoods of the city. Talented students recruited from the Syracuse City Schools are given the opportunity to perform onstage with these professionals at each concert.

 Ø       The SummerJazz Workshop (“Jazz At The Fair”), a one-week student improv program-in-residence at the Arts and Home Center at the NY State Fairgrounds, features a combo-based daily curriculum of small ensemble coaching, student jams, master classes, professional performances and a residency by a nationally known artist-educator who performs with all the students in a grand finale evening performance. The students also perform a day-long youth jazz festival at the NYS Fair each August.

 Ø       The Stan Colella Parks and Recreation All-Star Big Band, a paying summer job for seventeen students exclusively from the Syracuse City School District. This orchestra plays 55-60 concerts at important city events, nursing homes, schools, parks, and public places throughout the urban area. In partnership with the City of Syracuse, the CNYJAF provides auditions, instruction, music directorship, and performance opportunities at the “Jazz in the Square” festival. The organization provides a home base for this, our “youth orchestra”, at Jazz Central in downtown Syracuse.

 Ø       Summer Festival Concerts held throughout the extended Central New York region in free, open-to-the-public venues, including the Candlelight Series, Rochester International Jazz Festival and other regional locations. These appearances aim to widen audience knowledge and provide critical exposure of the art form to general audiences.

 Ø       A Jazz Vespers Series held at Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church in Dewitt. The services are a combination of inspirational and meditative readings, homily, and jazz played by members of the CNY Jazz Orchestra and various guest vocalists. The jazz selections are drawn from secular and sacred sources, representing a wide range of composers as varied as Duke Ellington, Chick Corea, Cole Porter, and Stephen Foster, and well-known hymns in jazz settings for all to enjoy singing as they wish. They are free and open to those of all faiths.

 Ø       The New “CNY Jazz Arts Institute”, a curriculum focused on professional training via two regional “benchmark” ensembles, the JAI Big Band and ‘Jam Factory’ Improv Labs. Other services coordinated through the Institute include college counseling and audition CD production, career seminars, preferred slots as master class demonstration ensembles in CNYJO pre-concert clinics, guaranteed slot at Jazz in the Square Scholastic Festival, and a new “Jazz Ambassadors” group that will learn professional organizational and marketing skills necessary for survivial in the performance workplace.