Jazz performers ranging in age from middle school to seasoned musicians will perform classic and improvisational jazz during the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 20 at Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts (THELMA), 51 Sheboygan St., Fond du Lac, Wis. THELMA will present the annual Fond du Lac Jazz Festival as part of April’s Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), a monthlong, statewide celebration wherein Wisconsin joins communities, schools, artists, historians, and jazz enthusiasts in highlighting the state’s jazz heritage. The Fond du Lac Jazz Festival serves as the designated jazz celebration for the Fond du Lac area, and has taken place at THELMA, formerly the Windhover Center for the Arts, since 2010. The event will feature five bands—the Theisen Middle School Jazz Band, Fond du Lac High School Jazz Band, Lighthouse Big Band, Divas and Jazz, and Stephen Cooper and the Nobody Famous. In addition, the festival will host an afterglow at THELMA. “We are so grateful to host the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival at THELMA,” said THELMA executive director Shannon Kupfer. “It will be such a fun and enriching way to celebrate Wisconsin’s Jazz Appreciation Month—with five bands, two of which are youth groups. Come on out and support these talented musicians!” The former Marian College first hosted the Wisconsin Jazz Festival in the college gymnasium in 1983, and it later became known as the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival. For the next 40 years, the festival presented jazz in various locations around Fond du Lac, including Marian University, UW-Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds, the Retlaw Theater, the Windhover Center for the Arts, and now THELMA. “The Fond du Lac Jazz Festival is the longest running jazz festival in Wisconsin, and, as such, is a real treasure to the area arts community,” said Brad Curran, leader of THELMA’s resident ensemble Lighthouse Big Band, the house band for the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival. “The high quality of music and world-class musicians presented at this festival enhance the community’s sense of art and inspire young students of jazz.” In addition to the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival fun, THELMA seeks essay contest submissions from community members about what art, including jazz, means to them. Essay contest submissions will open on Monday, April 15 and close Monday, July 1. Fittingly, the call for submissions features an essay about the love of jazz as inspiration for submitters. The essay is by jazz enthusiast and widely published poet Paula Sergi. Sergi describes her young adulthood as a jazz aficionado and transports the reader with succinct but poetic phrasing. Find Sergi’s essay on jazz, the THELMA essay contest call for submissions, and information on THELMA’s new literary journal, where essay contest winners will be published, at ThelmaArts.org. Local writers may also want to wax poetic about their experience at the Fond du Lac Jazz Festival. After the bands each play at THELMA on April 20, a mix of band members from each of the bands will jam together for an improvisational afterglow. The public is welcome to stay and enjoy the bonus show. As Curran said, “Fond du Lac is fortunate to have a festival like this.” The Fond du Lac Jazz Festival will continue to take place annually and is open to the public. This year’s festival offers free admission for THELMA members. Non-members can purchase tickets for $20. Several bars will be open during the festival throughout the THELMA building.
Fond du Lac Jazz Festival line up:
4-4:30 p.m. – Fond du Lac High School Jazz Band (Great Hall)
4:30-5 p.m. – Theisen Middle School Jazz Band (Great Hall)
5:15-6:45 p.m. – Lighthouse Big Band (Fountain City)
7-:30 p.m. Divas and Jazz (Great Hall)
8:45-10:15 p.m. Stephen Cooper and the Nobody Famous (Fountain City)
10:30 p.m.-12 a.m. Afterglow (Fountain City)
Lighthouse Big Band is THELMA’s resident ensemble jazz band and plays twice monthly on Tuesday nights at THELMA. Shows start at 7 PM in the Fountain City room. Upcoming spring 2024 shows include:
April 9
April 23
May 14
May 28
