Jazz Institute of Chicago hosts Second Women’s Jazz Leadership Day
Supporting leadership, learning and connection for aspiring women jazz musicians
The Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Women’s Jazz Leadership Initiative (WJLI) will host the second Women’s Jazz Leadership Day, in an ongoing effort to build spaces that welcome aspiring women musicians, and provide networking opportunities and support for women musicians throughout the area.
The all-day workshop for women jazz students and musicians ages 14 - 30 is scheduled for Sunday, June 10 from 10 a.m. till 4 p. m. and is open to the general public. Admission is $40 per person (includes lunch and a t-shirt). Women’s Jazz Leadership Day is presented in partnership with and held at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, located at 915 E. 60th St. Advance registration is required and currently open at jazzinchicago.org. Registration closes May 31.
Juli Wood photo by Harvey Tillis
Participants can attend beginning, intermediate and advanced workshops in improvisation; vocal and instrumental master classes; a lunchtime discussion led by Women in Music and a culminating jam session with WJLI mentors saxophonist Juli Wood, bassist Emma Dayhuff, pianist Joan Hickey and vocalist Alyssa Allgood. Previous mentors include vocalist Dee Alexander, trombonist Audrey Morrison, bassist Marlene Rosenberg, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events' Jennifer Johnson Washington, vocalist Renee Marie and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.
WJLI was created to foster a community of professional women musicians and female jazz students in Chicago by focusing on dialog, connection and musical exchange. In this moment of recognition of the trials women have endured in so many aspects of our culture, WJLI is at the forefront of identifying issues confronting women in jazz, and collectively and creatively finding ways to address them.
Co-founded in 2016 by former Jazz Institute of Chicago Executive Director Lauren Deutsch and staff members Katie Ernst, Morgan Pirtle and Adriana Prieto, WJLI has gathered over 40 young women since its inception to expand the skills needed to navigate the professional music world, build new and strengthen existing networks and provide a unique space for their voices to be heard. Applications are required for this program and open in the fall. For more information on WJLI or Women’s Jazz Leadership Day, call 312-427-1676 x 2 or visit jazzinchicago.org.
About the Jazz Institute of Chicago
Founded in 1969, the Jazz Institute of Chicago promotes and nurtures jazz in Chicago by providing jazz education, developing and supporting musicians, building audiences and fostering a thriving jazz scene. For more information on our programs, visit jazzinchicago.org.