Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
Young Concert Artists Founder and Director Susan Wadsworth will present this year's Commencement Address, and will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Other 2002 honorary doctorate recipients include: Venezuelan youth orchestra system mastermind José Antonio Abreu, jazz saxophone legend Sonny Rollins, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Perle.
Approximately 250 musicians will receive the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as well as undergraduate, graduate, and artist diplomas. NEC will also award its first Professional Certificate in The Art of String Quartet Playing to the Kuss Quartet of Germany. This new program, designed to provide concentrated professional training to very select pre established string quartets, is led by NEC faculty Paul Katz, the founding cellist of the Grammy Award-winning Cleveland Quartet. The Kuss Quartet, the first to enroll in this elite program, has been at NEC for the past year under Katz's tutelage.
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
Sep 22, 2026 1:39 PM
Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
Camille Thurman took to the stage alongside bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Tommy Campbell for a rendition of Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” that recalled Rollins’ epochal 1957 trio outing Way Out West.
Oct 6, 2026 1:33 PM
As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of Saint…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
Sep 8, 2026 11:52 AM
It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a school…
