the 2026 Hyde park jazz festival benefit & concert
june 29, 2026
The 20th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival Benefit and Concert is on Monday, June 29, 2026 at the Obama Presidential Center. We hope to have a packed house to kick off the 2026 Festival season and honor those critical to creating and sustaining the Festival and jazz culture on the South Side: Willie Pickens, James Wagner, and HPJF Volunteers. The annual Benefit helps keep the Festival free for everyone. The generosity and commitment of our jazz-loving community are essential to the Festival's continued capacity to sustain our thriving platform. If you are unable to attend but wish to make a donation please see the info below on how to do so. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival is a 501c3 organization. We are so grateful for your support. THANK YOU!
Schedule:
6:00pm-7:30pm: Reception and Honoree Celebration
7:30pm-8:30pm: Performance by Camille Thurman and the Darrell Green Quartet
In Honor of Willie Pickens, James Wagner and HPJF Volunteers
Catered by: BAMJOY
Hosted Beer and Wine Bar
Obama Presidential Center - 6001 S. Stony Island Ave
Hadiya Pendleton Atrium and Elie Wiesel Auditorium
Please scroll down for information on the performance and honorees.
Reserve a table or purchase single tickets:
$4,000 for a table of 8
$3,000 for a table of 6
$2,000 for a table of 4
TABLES FOR 2 ARE SOLD OUT. PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO PURCHASE. Many Thanks.
**Individual Ticket Price TBA**
If you wish to purchase a table or single tickets by credit card or PayPal, please fill in the amount for your table reservation using the “other” selection on the PayPal page linked below.
If you would like to pay by Zelle (which helps us avoid fees!) the address is kate@hydeparkjazzfestival.org
We will confirm your purchase and reserve your table. Thank you!
To purchase a table or make a donation by check, please make checks out to Hyde Park Jazz Festival and mail to:
Kate Dumbleton, HPJF Executive Director
1723 W. Erie Street #4
Chicago, IL 60622
Camille Thurman
with the Darrell Green quartet
Photo of Camille Thurman looking towards the right and wearing a brown sequin dress while holding a saxophone.
Remember the name Camille Thurman. As an accomplished composer, esteemed saxophonist, vocalist, and unique interpreter of the jazz tradition, she is quickly becoming one of the leading standard bearers of the art form. Her distinct musical approach to classic and original repertoire, which highlights her craft as a powerhouse singer and instrumentalist, is a captivating blend of tradition and innovation. She makes a considerable and dynamic contribution to the legacy of jazz while paying tribute to its heroes through her music.
The New York City native has amassed several distinctive honors for her musicianship: NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Jazz Album, recipient of the SOUTH Arts Creative Jazz Road Artistic Residency, Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll Nominee for Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist and Vocalist and Rising New Artist (2023, 2022, 2021 & 2020), two-time winner of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award, a recipient of the Fulbright Scholars Cultural Ambassador Grant and Chamber Music of America Performance Plus Grant (Sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) among others. Thurman also has five full-length recordings as a leader to her credit. Her most recent project, “Confluence: Vol 1,” is a collaboration with master drummer Darrell Green and his quartet.
Thurman made history, becoming the first woman in 30 years to tour, record, and perform full-time internationally with the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as a saxophonist/woodwind doubler (2018-2020 season). A respected bandleader, she has headlined numerous notable concert venues and jazz festivals worldwide, including the Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, and the Rose Theater. Her international recognition is a testament to the universal appeal of her music and the profound impact she has made on the global jazz community.
Music is definitely part of Darrell Green’s family pedigree—his father was a bass player after all—but this jazz drummer also has his own preternatural sense of groove. Over a career that’s spanned more than two decades, Green has become a master technician and prolific sideman, sharing stages with everyone from Blue Note vibraphonist Stefon Harris to saxophonist Red Holloway. Though jazz is his primary focus, Green is conversant in every genre from straight-ahead jazz to Latin and West African music.
Oakland-raised Green has been playing drums for as long as he can remember. In fact, his first birthday present was a toy drum. When he was 7 years old, Green landed his first professional gig at Cosmopolitan Baptist Church. Four years later he matriculated in the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley and apprenticed under Kent Reed. “He would take me to his gigs. I would help him set up so I got exposed to the real life of a musician,” says Green. During high school Green was a section leader in both the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and the Bay Area Wind Symphony. Additionally, he played drums in the Castlemont High School Jazz Band and backed the Castleers choir. After high school, Green attended the California Institute of the Arts on a scholarship, where he majored in jazz studies with an emphasis on African percussion.
2026 Hyde park Jazz Festival Benefit HONOREES
Willie pickens
Willie Pickens born 1931 moved to Hyde Park from Milwaukee Wisconsin in 1958. In 1959 he married Chicagoan Irma his wife of 56 years. His contributions to the world of Jazz and Music Education have been immeasurable. The list of musicians with whom he has Performed with is a veritable who’s who of the industry: Elvin Jones, James Moody, Clark Terry, Max Roach, Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Harris, Marian McPartland, Roy Hargrove, Quincy Jones, Bobby Hutcherson and Bethany Pickens, to name a few. Mr. Pickens taught Music for the Chicago Public schools for 25 years; he was the first Instrumental Music Teacher at Kenwood High School. Pickens was Professor of Jazz Improvisation for 17 years at The American Conservatory of Music. He was the Founding Director for Ravinia’s Jazz Scholars Program and Professor of Jazz Piano at Northern Illinois University for 18 years. When Willie moved to Chicago, his plan was to spend a brief time here and move to New York. He quickly established himself as a “first-call” Pianist. Three years after he married Irma they began their Family. Their first-born Bethany, two years later David and twelve years after Kiron. Hyde Park remained his home until his death in New York just prior to sound check at Lincoln Center, 2017. 2015 his Wife Irma preceded him in death. Irma managed all things Pickens!
James Wagner
Photo by Marc Monaghan
James Webb Wagner was an activist, civic leader, and long-time Hyde Park resident. He received his high school diploma from DuSable High School, his B.S. from Northwestern University, his M.A. from the University of Chicago, and his PhD. from Western Colorado University.
After a career as a Chicago Public School (CPS) teacher, Education Director at the Chicago Urban League, and positions in health planning and public health, Wagner served as Dean of Students at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois for nearly 20 years. Since retirement, Wagner had worked as a consultant to non-profit organizations, but gave much of his time to his deep commitment to community and civic interests. He was also a long time member and leader at University Church in Hyde Park.
For many years, Wagner headed three organizations to which he was deeply devoted. With his strong leadership, the DuSable Alumni Coalition successfully fought to keep DuSable High School open when CPS had plans to close it. He was the founding chair of the Mary Herrick Scholarship Fund, which has raised over $200,000 for scholarships for more than 200 DuSable graduates.
In the 90s, Wagner founded an organization focused on bringing jazz back to Hyde Park, which had been the center of jazz in the Midwest decades ago. With the support of the University of Chicago, Wagner and the Hyde Park Jazz Society succeeded in bringing the Checkerboard Lounge to Hyde Park, and establishing the highly successful Sunday night jazz series. In September of 2008, the second annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival, co-sponsored by the Hyde Park Jazz Society, the Hyde Park Cultural Alliance, and the University of Chicago, dedicated the festival’s Main Stage as the James W. Wagner Center Stage.
One of Wagner’s greatest joys was the election of Barack Obama as President-Elect, having been a strong supporter of his from the beginning of his political career. Wagner was a long-time civil rights activist, including his role as Captain of the “Green Train,” which transported hundreds of Chicagoans to Dr. King’s 1963 March on Washington. He often said that he never expected to see the election of an African-American in his lifetime.
As much as he cared about his many causes, his greatest love was his family: his wife of 36 years, Almarie, and his daughters Cecily and Cynthia. He and his wife traveled extensively, including trips to Africa, Egypt, China, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands. During the last two weeks before his death, he had the joy of having a group of University Church members visit to sing Christmas carols, and an amazing group of jazz musicians headed by Willie Pickens come to his home to perform for him.
HPJF Volunteers
Photo by Marc Monaghan
Since the very first Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2007, cohorts of volunteers have made the Festival possible. As a grassroots, community driven event that is free to the public, it would be impossible to produce the event without members of the community lending a hand. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival has had literally thousands of volunteers across the last 20 years, usually ranging around 200 per year. It is impossible to overstate how amazing it is to have so many people show up to help produce the Festival every year. Their care, generosity, joy, hospitality, commitment are a fundamental part of what makes the Hyde Park Jazz Festival so unique and enduring. We are pleased to celebrate the Volunteers this year at the 20th Annual Benefit and Concert.