Act4MusicFest 2020

Check out our Press Teaser below!

In response to the corona pandemic and its devastating impact on the music scene, ACT4Music’s first initiative came into being just three weeks after its creation:

ACT4Music Fest — An 8-week, online international Creative Music festival, featuring specially curated video music performances by both well-established favorites and vibrant new voices.

A cross-section of the 260+ artists and curators featured to date include:

Steve Rowland— One of the most accomplished music documentarians in the US. Recipient of the Pew Fellowship for the Arts, two Peabody awards, be Prix Italia, Armstrong, and Nt’l Arts Journalism awards, among others. His new three-part interview series, “Steve Rowland: Interviews with Music Masters,” is currently available on Act4Music.org and features interviews with Kenny Barron, Maxine Gordon, Louis Hayes, Sumi Tonooka, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman, George Cables, Camille Thurman, Odean Pope, Burton Greene, Bobby Zankel, and Sam Reed. “Steve is not only one of the most outstanding Coltrane experts alive, but the co-producer, along with Larry Abrams, of one of the best things ever done on the jazz giant, a radio series called ‘Tell Me How Long Trane’s Been Gone.’ –Cornel West 

Jazz legend, NEA Jazz Master, and 9-time Grammy Nominee, Kenny Barron. “Kenny Barron is the leading practitioner of an elegant, economical and sure-fotted piano style.” – The New York Times

Genre-defying recording artist, educator, and composer, Brandee Younger. “Younger has almost single-handedly made a peruasive argument for the harp’s role in contemporary jazz.” – The New York Times

4-time Grammy award-winning virtuoso, composer, and educator, who has been among the most admired bassists in the world for four decades, John Patitucci. “Having a strong sense of history and a forwarded-minded vision have always been John Patititucci’s two greatest stregnths.” – Bass Magazine

2020 Grammy nominatee and Monk Institute Jazz Saxophone Competition Winner, Melissa Aldana. “What really blew me away was the maturity of her sound. It manifests through clean, nuanced phrasing, reminiscent of her early idol, Sonny Rollins.” – NPR Music

MacArthur Fellow, Doris Duke recipient, and 4-time winner of Downbeat’s “Jazz Artist of the Year” award, Vijay Iyer. “A forceful rhythmically invigorating performer who weds a cutting-edge sensibility to a unique sense of compositional balance.” Jazz Times

2018-19 Bassist of the Year and 2019 Up-and-Coming Artist of the Year JJA awardee, Linda May Han Oh. “Her innovative range and stellar improvisations have made her one of the most dynamic rising stars in jazz today – The Wall Street Journal

Grammy nominated tenor sax master & composer, Chris Potter. “One of the most studied (and copied) saxophonists on the planet.” – DownBeat

Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer, Michele Rosewoman. “Rosewoman is one of the under-the-radar starts of American music. She’s a mistress of integrating forms.” – DownBeat

Grammy nominated, DC Jazz Fest Lifetime Achievement Awardee, voted #1 Jazz Drummer in Modern Drummer reader’s poll, and living jazz legend…Billy Hart. “Hart has lived through multiple sea changes in jazz; what makes him exciting to watch is that he’s also clearly absorbed them all.” – NPR Music

2018 Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition winner, Laurin Talese. “Some of the most sumptuously phrased jazz vocals you could hope to hear.” – The Chicago Tribune

Named “Best Artist in African Jazz” in the 2017 All-Africa Music Awards, and the first South African artist to be signed to Blue Note Records, Nduduzo Makhathini. “Makhanthini knows that to speak through the ancestors, you have to connect with the earth”. – NPR Music

MacArthur Fellow, Grammy Award-Winner, composer, and educator extraordinaire, Dafnis Prieto. “Prieto’s perspective is something like viewing the clave in a kaleidoscope: There’s a beauty to the symmetry.” – NPR Music

Portuguese improvisational vocalist, composer and educator, Sara Serpa. “Serpa posseses a preternatural cool, injecting weightless sophistication and melodic grace grace into everything she touches.” – The Chicago Tribune

#act4music #act4musicfest #cloudvenue #cloudsofsound

Inquiries: PRESS@ACT4Music.org

ACT4MUSIC FESTIVAL 2020: CONCERT SCHEDULE

Tickets to all concerts are currently available for purchase on act4music.org.

Only on Act4Music.org

Inquiries: PRESS@ACT4Music.org

Participants List

TD Toronto Jazz Fest

Teodross Avery

Thurgot Theodat

Tigran Hamaysan

Tim Lefebvre

Tim Motzer

Tina Raymond

Tom Rainey

Toné Vicioso & Aumbata

Tony Paeleman

Tony Tixier

Toronto Downtown Jazz Society

Tumi Mogorosi

Tyshawn Sorey

Val Jeanty

Vanessa Perea

Victor Caccase

Vijay Iyer

Vilk Collective

Vivian Green

Wendy Eisenberg

Xavier Belin

Yuma Sung

Zawadi Yamungu