Key of She Jazz March 2022 Recap

On March 14, 15, and 16, Key of She Jazz hosted their fourth virtual experience which was attended by girls and young women in jazz, in addition their peers of all genders, educators, jazz enthusiasts and more. 

The first night featured an incredible panel of established women in jazz, Ellen Rowe, Marion Hayden and Regina Carter spoke about their experiences throughout their career to inspire the audience. They discussed playing with like-minded people, finding inspirations outside of music, and how they found their way to jazz music. 

Our second night was an interactive workshop with baritone saxophonist and sound sculptor Kaleigh Wilder. Kaleigh provided techniques to the group of new and innovative ways to think about improvisation, and how to insert emotion and parts of your life into music. Although this 3-day event was virtual, that put no stop to collaboration. Even over Zoom, a student from Ohio improvised, while a participant from Canada interpreted the music through dance. All attendees were invited to unmute and share a few musical lines of improvisation to the group. 

To wrap up the event, Angela McCuiston from Music Strong led a session about injury prevention and strength training for musicians. Musicians are often strained from long hours of practice and can find themselves unequipped with proper stretches to relieve tension. In this interactive session, Angela had participants up and moving, learning new tricks to keep for future reference. 

While the organization has been virtual, they have enjoyed expanding their network globally, having participants from coast-to-coast across the US, as well as Canada, Venezuela, London, Portugal, India, and New Zealand, to name a few. 

Up next, Key of She has been working to improve their website and expand their already extensive resources list (which already includes reading lists, film lists, listening recommendations, and a comprehensive list of over 600 women in jazz). The organization is currently in the process of planning an in-person event. 

To learn more about Key of She, visit their website keyofshejazz.org and subscribe to their mailing list. 

And follow them on social media IG/Twitter/FB: @keyofshejazz