News

Joy of Jazz Festival set for May 6 at HHS

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 15, 2023

The fifth annual high school “Joy of Jazz Festival” will take place at Hendersonville High School beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 6.

The “Joy of Jazz Festival” was established in 2017 by then Hendersonville Community Music Center Director Robin Tolleson. After Tolleson’s sudden passing in June 2019, the HCMC board and the Tolleson family decided to use monies donated in Rob’s memory to continue the “Joy of Jazz Festival” in his honor.

From 2017 to 2019, the “Joy of Jazz Festival” provided a one-day workshop for local high school jazz bands. This year, bands from Hendersonville High School, the Greenville Jazz Collective Youth Ensemble and Powdersville Middle School will spend the day working with highly respected teaching artists including Shannon Hoover (Greenville Jazz Collective), John Brown (director of Jazz Studies, Duke University), Dr. Matthew Storie (Anderson University and University of Nebraska, Omaha), Ben Bjorlie (Asheville Jazz/Funk Jams), and Rich Willey (Manhattan School of Music). The community is invited to the concert at 3:30 pm at the Hendersonville High School auditorium. Guests must enter through the auditorium entrance which faces Bearcat Boulevard.

Jazz fans can make it a weekend of jazz by attending a concert presented by the Arts Council of Henderson County featuring John Brown and his Duke University jazz band at 7 p.m. Friday night, May 5, in the HHS auditorium highlighting songs by North Carolina natives Nina Simone and John Coltrane. Tickets are $15.

For more information, contact lead festival coordinator Shannon Hoover at profmus1@yahoo.com and (864) 353-7529, or Jocelyn Tolleson at jocelynctolleson@gmail.com.