The Washington Jazz festival was born from the lack of more feminine representation in the genre. The founder of the festival, Amy K. Bormet, is a singer and pianist who saw the lack of functionality opportunities for women and non -binary artists of jazz.
“I took personally,” he told WTOP, which led her to create WWJF. Now, 15 years later, the festival celebrates its anniversary in Dupont Circle.
The opening occasion in 2011 took its position at the Jazz Twins Club now closed in U Street. Since then, the festival has sung its air in plays like Blues Alley and Caverns Bohemio, as well as DIY such as Rhizome and Union Arts.
This year, the Festival will take a position in the Penn Arts Building, a historical mansion through Dupont Circle that serves as the headquarters of the National Women’s League with Pen American. This weekend, on March 29 and March 30, starting on Saturday at 11 a. m. , the mansion will be full of workshops, functionalities and jam sessions.
Bormet praised the place: “They have a glorious room with a tail piano, and it is an intimate space. You can only one hundred people, so it is a great atmosphere to be in this mansion, drag all day and see many other types of people. “
The public will have the opportunity to practice and be reported workshops and meetings directed through the most productive musicians and university professors. The two days will end with jam sessions where the public is invited to play. On Saturday night he will show a classic jam directed through Bormet, focusing on jazz standards.
On Sunday night, there will be a “Jam Wandering”, where musicians will disperse in the mansion, and the public will be to create music with them. The Network Orchestra, Regenerate!, Will have an open practice session in which the public plays a central role in performance.
“It is guided through a glorious cellist, Wesley Hornpetrie. She incorporates many types of music-making, so even if you don’t read music or aren’t a professional musician, you can participate in her regenerated orchestra,” Bormet said.
For those who are nervous about the concept of joining us, Bormet presented comfort: “The thing about improvisation is that everyone takes a threat.
The Will established two artists-in-residence: Allison Crockett and Alex Hamburger.
Manhattan School of Music crockett, Crockett considers himself “a musician who leaves the culture of jazz, the culture of black music, where jazz artists take the established bureaucracy and reinvent them in a new and other way,” according to their biography of artists. Alex Hamburger, by Maryland, perfected his task at the Washington Women in Jazz Festival.
One of the maximum occasions of the festival is the showcase of emerging artists, where university women and non -binary musicians in the DMV region and beyond have the possibility of acting.
Amy Bormet reflected that 10 years ago, Hamburger, one of those musicians: “. . . So now, bringing him back as an artist in the apartment is super great. It is a full -moment type for me to perceive Washington’s musicians.
The festival is proud to be a center to establish contacts between musicians, either in the DC region and in the world.
Bormet told WTOP that because local artists have collaborated with those on the west coast, Europe and South America, this “actually strengthened our scene and also strengthened that women have touched this music since they start jazz. It is a very intelligent experience, and many people, especially women, really appreciate being there, especially instrumental women. “
Bormet also said that the festival is to advance gender. “Our residence artist, Allison Crockett, makes many pop songs from the 80s and 90s that relocated and replaced the arrangements, which makes them even more desirable.
The Washington Women in Jazz Festival begins on Saturday, March 29 and takes a position on Sunday, March 30 at Pen Arts Mansion, at 1300 17th St NW. For more data and buy tickets, your website.
Carlos Ramírez, from northern Virginia, has been trafficking in the regions of D. C. and Baltimore since 2016, before joining the WTOP traffic team in the summer of 2021.