About Us
The Festival has earned critical international acclaim for presenting innovative jazz and creative improvised music in a community setting.
It features a main stage program showcasing Canadian and international artists, a free downtown jazz tent on the Saturday of the Festival weekend, and numerous other concerts at a variety of community venues, including churches, an art gallery and the youth music centre.
Opening the Festival is a jazz colloquium that looks at the music's influence on society and culture. Another educational component is the mainly off-season Jazz in the Schools program, which exposes elementary, high school, and university students to teaching from highly improvisational jazz artists.
Finally, the Festival has commissioned three original works, including the jazz opera Québécité. This year (our 16th) we will mount three large-scale "Outstallations" - a special series of outdoor events designed to reach new audiences and present unconventional music in Guelph's public space.
The Jazz Festival has grown from a small enterprise with audiences in the hundreds into a large event that draws upwards of 11,000 listeners annually. It occurs every year on the weekend following Labour Day in downtown Guelph, Ontario. This year's dates are Sept. 9-13, 2009.
Sangam: Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain, Eric Harland (USA)
Charles Lloyd, saxophones and other winds, was a key voice in modern jazz. Zakir Hussain is internationally celebrated for his masterful contributions to the field of Indian classical music. Joining them is drummer Eric Harland, who has played with Betty Carter, Joe Henderson and Wynton Marsalis.
