History

In late 2006, Hyde Park cultural leaders convened with the community group, the Hyde Park Jazz Society, to create an annual event that would bring new audiences to the many arts and cultural venues in Hyde Park, and celebrate jazz’s great legacy and bright future on Chicago’s South Side. The University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement stepped up to assist this grassroots effort. The inaugural Hyde Park Jazz Festival was held in September of 2007. At the first Festival, almost 5,000 jazz fans enjoyed 12 hours of free jazz performed in museums, art galleries, and architecturally significant venues in the greater Hyde Park area. In 2012, the Festival hired its first professional director, and in 2013, the Festival became an independent 501(c)(3).

The Festival originated in the community and remains steadfastly committed to its grassroots history as it grows. Now in its seventeenth year, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival has established itself as a major cultural event and an essential music festival in Chicago. The Festival has also expanded significantly and now includes more than 35 programs over 2 days in more than a dozen unique venues, presenting Chicago’s most exceptional musicians across age and "style" to crowds of nearly 20,000 community members and visitors. Since 2014, the Festival has commissioned a dozen major new works, supported numerous special projects by local, national, and international artists, and has significantly increased the number of national artists presented in the neighborhood. During the challenging years of the pandemic, the Festival maintained its commitment to providing jazz musicians with paid opportunities to perform and for community members to listen to music and be safely connected. The Festival is produced with the help of more than 250 volunteers and is supported by numerous generous individuals, private and corporate foundations, government agencies, and the University of Chicago.