South Shore Conservatory Presents Two-Day Hingham Jazz Festival

South Shore Conservatory (SSC) presents its two-day Hingham Jazz Festival (HJF) on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20 in the Jane Carr Amphitheater at One Conservatory Drive in Hingham. Chateau Edmus is the presenting sponsor of the Festival.

Featuring the varied talents of its own jazz/rock/pop (JRP) department faculty members, Hingham Jazz Festival’s Saturday line-up starts with contemporary jazz by audience favorite Jon Jarvis Trio, SSC bassist Chris Rathbun and SSC percussionist Ed Sorrentino at 5 pm, followed by ESP Vocal Trio, which includes SSC Voice Department Chair Emily Browder Melville, delivers original songs and compelling new arrangements of familiar and lesser-known jazz tunes with sensuous blend and savvy musicality at 6:15 pm. Award-winning duo Sugar Ray, vocals, and SSC’s Anthony Geraci play some down and dirty blues at 7:15 pm. Headliners Williams Reunion Jazz Band rounds off the evening at 8 pm with their special brand of Dixieland tunes.

New this year is a special Sunday Jazz Brunch on the stage of the amphitheater from 11 am to 1 pm. In addition to the SSC Faculty Jazz Quartet and heaping helping of jazz from the standards to Latin classics, the Festival serves up delicious brunch items from Stars on Hingham Harbor, such as scrambled eggs, home fries, sausage and bacon, corn bread and fresh fruit. Audience members are encouraged to come for the hot food, and stay for the cool jazz.
Following the brunch, all ages are invited to participate in the Everyone Plays! Drum Circle at 1 pm, with Creative Arts Therapies Director/Drum Circle Facilitator Eve Montague on the amphitheater lawn. No experience is necessary to participate in this fun activity, as anyone with an internal heartbeat has the rhythm inside them to drum.

The Sunday afternoon musical lineup includes An Unauthorized Autobiography, contemporary jazz compositions of SSC trumpeter Rob Reustle, with SSC’s Ed Sorrentino on percussion, Chris Rathbun on bass, and Erik Caldarone on guitar at 2 pm, Sparrow Blue with SSC fiddler Katy Boc and guitarist Todd Nickerson at 3:15 pm, and SSC Jazz/Rock/Pop (JRP) faculty in concert at 4 pm, featuring a mix of original compositions and the department’s personal jazz, rock and pop favorites.

“The Conservatory is very excited to be presenting our world class faculty for the second year in a row,” says SSC Director of Performance, Beth MacLeod Largent. “We’ve made some wonderful upgrades this year, such as a jazz brunch, food trucks at our Saturday performances, and of course the cornerstone of every performance we present, amazing music in a venue like no other!”

SSC’s Jane Carr Amphitheater recently completely updated its sound and lighting systems. Funding for this project has been provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, a program of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administered through a collaborative arrangement between MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. SSC is grateful to the individuals who generously donated the matching funds required as part of this grant.

Tickets to the Hingham Jazz Festival are available at http://www.sscmusic.org/hingham-jazz-festival.html or by calling 781.749.7565, ext. 20. Tickets for Saturday are $40/adults. The Sunday Jazz Brunch is $15/person, and the Sunday music only is $25. SSC students may attend any Saturday or Sunday concert, with exception of the brunch, for free. Non-SSC students may purchase a Saturday/Sunday, music only ticket for $10.

For more information about all South Shore Conservatory programs and events, visit www.sscmusic.org or follow us on Facebook.

About South Shore Conservatory
South Shore Conservatory, recently recognized as a national model for arts education by the National Guild for Community Arts Education, is celebrating nearly 45 years of enriching the lives of South Shore residents through music and the arts. SSC was founded as a not-for-profit community music school in 1970 and now has two beautiful campuses in Hingham and Duxbury. Currently serving over 3500 students of all ages and abilities, SSC is the largest community school for the arts in Massachusetts. Students participate in more than 50 diverse programs in music, dance and drama. Through innovative partnerships with social service agencies, SSC’s Creative Arts Therapies department supports the mental, emotional, and physical health of some of our community’s more fragile members. SSC’s Hingham campus is located at One Conservatory Drive, Hingham, 781-749-7565. SSC’s Duxbury campus is located at the Ellison Center for the Arts, 64 St. George Street, Duxbury, 781-934-2731. South Shore Conservatory is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education. SSC programs are supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. For more information call us, follow us on Facebook or visit www.sscmusic.org.

In keeping with SSC’s inclusive mission to provide access to quality education in the arts for all, the Conservatory offers programs for all segments of the population to enjoy, regardless of age, ability, geography, and financial means. Furthermore, South Shore Conservatory admits students and families of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school.