Jazz Outreach Initiative

Jazz Outreach Initiative, "JOI," partners with organizations such as The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Las Vegas Youth Orchestra, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis to carry out its mission ensuring jazz education, outreach, and awareness are inclusive and accessible for a diverse community.

Starting with founding President and Artistic Director, Kenny Rampton (Member of Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis), we are able to bring world class artists and create collaborative efforts in fulfillment of our mission. JOI is an affiliate of Jazz At Lincoln Center and we work closely with JALC as members of our advisory board to utilize their highly regarded educational programs locally in southern Nevada. Vice Pres. and Program Director, Gary Cordell, has performed and taught in Las Vegas for more than 3 decades and as VP of the local Musicians Union, provides a unique ability to draw in supporters such as the Music Performance Trust Fund, the American Federation of Musicians, and local musicians and educators to produce our highly regarded programming. Donny Thompson, Sec., and Executive Director has been a musician for decades and has been a leader in business and banking. He brings a wealth of knowledge through those experiences along with a Masters of Nonprofit Administration to ensure JOI's success. We also include Federal District Court Judge Richard Boulware who is a strong advocate for disadvantaged youth and schools. Richard serves as our Outreach Committee Chair. Dr. Nancy Brune has worked tirelessly for education and outreach causes including serving on White House committees and currently as Executive Director of the Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities. She is a professor for the Boyd School of Law at UNLV. And to keep our finances in order, Treasurer Debi Rivken has decades of experience with nonprofits and for profits as a CPA and we also utilize third party CPA services for our annual audit.

In spring semester 2019, JOI reached more than 2,000 students, most from at-risk schools. We measured their level of understanding of our jazz program before and after each school program. We also hosted clinics and master classes where we asked for feedback from students after each to learn how they would use the new knowledge gained in their ongoing music studies. We host the Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Band Festival each year in Las Vegas, in partnership with UNLV. It is licensed by Jazz and Lincoln Center as a feeder to their national festival in New York City. After two years, we now host the largest of the Ellington festivals in the nation with a draw of schools from across the southwest, and one of the 23 bands we had in 2019 was selected to the national festival. As we launch new programs such as the spring 2020 launch of the new Las Vegas Youth Jazz Orchestra, we will expand reach into all age groups and provide a welcoming performance and learning space regardless of skill level. We will also expand our elementary school program, "Buzzin' In Brass" to double the number of Title 1 schools reached and provide those programs for free to those schools. We'll also perform the Jazz at Lincoln Center's highly rated "Jazz For Young People Concerts" which spotlight luminary jazz artists such as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Dave Brubek, and many others. These will be performed for free at high schools across southern Nevada. And we will again host the Essentially Ellington festivals and clinics, outreach efforts, and more.

We have grown from a small dream filled nonprofit to a regional powerhouse in just a couple of years. Partnering with local nonprofits, schools, businesses, and community members of influence, we're reaching more students than any other program in southern Nevada. Each semester, we reach more than 2,000 students and touch the lives of students and adults of all ages. We have hosted clinics and master classes with artists including Arturo Sandoval, Miles Davis, Michael Dease, and Charley Davis. We produce a newsletter with questions from our followers to artists like Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, and others. We host Buzzin' In Brass and Jazz For Young People concerts for at risk Title 1 schools. We host with UNLV and Jazz at Lincoln Center, the largest Essentially Ellington Regional High School Band Festival in the nation. And we just created the city's first full time youth jazz orchestra.