About Us

Staff

 

Ajay Heble, Artistic Director

Ajay Heble is the festival's founding and current artistic director. He is a jazz piano player, listener and author. He teaches English at the University of Guelph, and is also director of a multi-university social research project entitled Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice.

Executive Director

This position is currently vacant.

Julie Hastings, Director of Operations

Julie has been involved with the Guelph Jazz Festival since 1995 when she started out as a volunteer and subsequently became a staff member working on many aspects of the Festival. She has immensely enjoyed her experiences and associations generated during that time and is deeply appreciative that her horizons have expanded widely.

Brendan Arnott, Administrative Coordinator

Brendan manages the day-to-day financial and database administration for the Guelph Jazz Festival. He's been  with the Festival for over a year.

Drew Allen, Sponsorship Sales

Drew is a professional fundraiser, with particular expertise in the music industry and sponsorship sales. He's been a contract consultant to the festival for over a year.

The Guelph Outstallations

The 2009 Guelph Jazz Festival included three "outstallations" – innovative improvisations in the streets and parks of Guelph. You can catch the flavour of two of these events in the videos below. Three Parades was the conjunction of three marching bands, in unison with the carillon at St. George's Church downtown; the full nine-minute event is shown in the video below. Percussion in the Park was a free improvisation on playground equipment, of which you can see an excerpt from one of the two performances below.

Three Parades • Percussion in the Park