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National Endowment for the Arts Announces
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Washington, DC - Building on the National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA) highly successful NEA Jazz Masters on Tour initiative, the NEA announces NEA Jazz Masters Live, a series of multiple event, extended engagements in selected communities, featuring NEA Jazz Masters. Managed by Arts Midwest, the NEA Jazz Masters Live initiative will bring more than 25 NEA Jazz Masters to 12 venues across nine states, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
From 2005-2007, NEA Jazz Masters on Tour reached an audience of more than 165,000 in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and gave 27 NEA Jazz Masters the chance to reach new audiences. NEA Jazz Masters Live provides more in-depth opportunities for NEA Jazz Masters to share their contributions to the art of jazz through performances, master classes, clinics, lectures or other types of presentations, many of which last several days.
"Through performances, workshops, residencies, and public conversations, NEA Jazz Masters Live will provide audiences with extended engagements with many of this nation's greatest living jazz musicians and advocates," said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. "This initiative will further understanding of jazz and of the NEA Jazz Masters' unique contributions to this original American art form."
In addition to NEA Jazz Masters such as Paquito D'Rivera, James Moody, and Toshiko Akiyoshi, participants at the NEA Jazz Masters Live events also will include recipients of the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz Advocacy, such as jazz historian and educator Dan Morgenstern and critic and journalist Nat Hentoff. Most of the chosen venues feature events with more than one NEA Jazz Master. For instance, in September 2008 at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the programming will feature singer and 2004 NEA Jazz Master Nancy Wilson and her long-time manager, John Levy, recipient of the 2006 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz Advocacy.
Organizations chosen for the first phase of NEA Jazz Masters Live are:
About the NEA Jazz Masters Program
The National Endowment for the Arts has supported jazz artists and organizations
since 1969, providing millions of dollars in grants and awards. In 2004,
the NEA significantly expanded its NEA Jazz Masters program and in 2005 created
the NEA Jazz Masters Initiative, a comprehensive program of jazz support
that includes the NEA Jazz Masters Award, an NEA Jazz Masters tour with performances
and educational activities, radio programming featuring NEA Jazz Masters,
a compilation CD produced by Verve Music Group, educational resources through
the NEA Jazz in the Schools program, and publications and reports. For more
information, please visit www.arts.gov/national/jazz/index.html.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting
excellence in the arts, both new and established, bringing the arts to all
Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress
in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment
is the largest national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50
states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more
information, please visit www.arts.gov.
About Arts Midwest
Arts Midwest connects people throughout the Midwest and the world to meaningful
arts opportunities, sharing creativity, knowledge, and understanding across
boundaries. Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state
region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio,
South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations
in the United States, Arts Midwest's history spans more than 25 years.
For more information, please visit www.artsmidwest.org.
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National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506
