It’s a tradition. The group that opens the John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival each year is the Coltrane Jazz Youth Workshop. They will perform on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017 to kick of the 7th annual Coltrane Jazz Festival in High Point, NC.
The performing group is a result of the Coltrane Jazz Workshop for Youth (JCJW), an annual summer camp sponsored each year by the High Point Arts Council. It offers rising 7th through 12th graders an introduction to jazz history and jazz theory in the city where Coltrane grew up and learned to play, taught by educators and performers who are highly regarded as jazz specialists. The workshop is led by Wally West, Administrative Director and member of the Piedmont Triad Jazz Orchestra and the Director of Jazz Studies at Gardner-Webb University. The faculty for the workshop includes musicians who teach and perform throughout the state.
