The 2023 National Jazz Festival took place in Philadelphia and virtually on YouTube
on April 22, 2023
Thank you for participating in the 2023 festival. We hope to see you in 2024!
4th Annual National Jazz Festival
1,444 Student Musicians ~ 84 Ensembles ~ 60 Schools ~
~ 19 States and Puerto Rico ~
It is hard to express the joy that we feel in our return to Philadelphia after being in a virtual format only for the last 2 years. We are excited to have seen you here today celebrating jazz education with us in person..
There have been many firsts for the NJF. We did not know in 2019 how we would be received by the schools and the jazz community as we prepared for the inaugural festival here at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. We were immensely grateful for the immediate trust schools put in our abilities, and on February 15 2020, we saw the success of our efforts in the faces of our participants. In the uncertain times surrounding the Covid epidemic, we again questioned our decision to create the 2021 virtual festival. Pushing ahead, we added the Instrumental Soloist category and featured – thanks to SmartMusic – Gordon Goodwin and the Big Phat Band in masterclasses and the SmartMusic category. NJF YouTube officially became a part of our lives. We were able to air amazing videos of students from all across the country along with the adjudicators’ feedback, and we knew, from emails and viewership, that we had achieved our goal. In 2022, we continued with the virtual format which included a growing Middle School category and our first Canadian school. First a festival…then a virtual festival, new categories, new schools, and finally…2023! Both in person and virtual!