Announcing the 2015 Steel City Jazz Festival

Hello jazz lovers and listeners of Hamilton! If I may, I would like to briefly take your attention away from popsicles, barbeques and sweat to talk about a time not too distant from now, with a whiff of apple pie in the air and a jazz festival happening right here in Hamilton. The 2015 Steel City Jazz Festival will be taking place from October 21st – November 1st. Mark your calendars!

There’s so much great music coming your way at this year’s festival that I could hardly do it all justice in this post, so instead I’ll opt for a quick taste of this year’s festivities. I am very proud to announce that we will once again be calling Artword Artbar and the Pearl Company home. Both of these venues have graciously hosted us in the past and anyone who has been to Artbar or the Pearl can tell you there’s no better place around to listen to jazz. The opening run of shows will take place at the Artbar, and we’ll finish the festival off with a weekend of shows at the Pearl!

Now for the best part: I am very excited to say that we will be featuring an artist-in-residence at this year’s festival, the extraordinary pianist Adrean Farrugia! Adrean has played with an amazing assortment of jazz luminaries, including Chris Potter, Tom Scott, Kenny Wheeler, Darcy James Argue, Don Thompson and more. As a faculty member at Mohawk College he’s a vital member of the Hamilton jazz community and we couldn’t be happier to have him on board for this year’s Steel City Jazz Festival. As artist-in-residence you’ll have the opportunity to hear Adrean play in a variety of settings and with many other fantastic musicians, but you’ll have to check back in at a later date for all of the details!