Mary Petrich brought her Jazz Women’s Collective program to The Century Room on Saturday, Marcy 14, 2026. Mary was the director of the Foundation’s All Girls Jazz Summer Intensive back in 2019 funded by donors in memory of Tucson’s Women in Jazz advocate Yvonne Ervin. Mary teaches jazz improvisation at Phoenix College and headed the …
Mary Petrich of Jazz Women’s Collective Holds Girls Clinic Read More »
Roxy Coss has visited Tucson many times and has been a master clinician with the Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band on several occasions. This time she was a headliner at The Century Room and we invited her to lead an all girls combo prior to her performance on Sunday, January 25, 2026. The girls …
Roxy Coss Leads an All Girls Jazz Combo Clinic at The Century Room Read More »
The Tucson Jazz Music Foundation in collaboration with The Century Room / Century Room Jazz Education Program presented an afterschool presentation on Thursday, January 15, 2026, celebrating the centennial of trumpet legend MILES DAVIS. Grammy-winning American music historian, author, journalist, and producer ASHLEY KAHN explained to students why Miles Davis still matters using a multi-media …
Ashley Kahn presents MILES DAVIS at 100 Afterschool Show at The Century Room Read More »
In 2025 the Tucson Jazz Music Foundation sponsored most of the Tucson Jazz Institute’s students travel/lodging/meal expenses to three jazz festivals starting with Las Vegas in January (Essentially Ellington Regional Festival/UNLV), followed by Flagstaff in February (NAU Jazz Festival), and lastly to NYC in May to participate in the Essentially Ellington High School Big Band …
J. J. Borja (guitarist) graduated TJI in 2016 and currently lives in Hopkinton, Maine. He graduated Yale University in 2020 with a B.A. in History, a M.A. in History, and a M.Ed. from the University of Arizona in 2021 (Secondary Education). J. J. studied to become a history teacher in the Teach Arizona program at …
This past September Mountain View High School junior Preston Fisher won the Silver Medal (Male Solo Junior Division) in the 2023 IDO World Tap Dance Championship held in Germany. His winning piece PENNIES FROM HEAVEN was choreographed by TJI alum (2017) Brendan Kellam who helped the TJI Ellington Big Band win first place in the …
Preston Fisher, Silver Medalist, to perform PENNIES FROM HEAVEN with TJI Read More »
Tucson Jazz Institute Ellington Big Band members and guests were treated to a special and intimate performance by the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West | Latin Band Group, on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, at Utterback Middle School Auditorium, Tucson. This was a free and open-to-the-public performance and it also turned into …
AIR FORCE BAND of the Golden West Performance & Latin Music Clinic | Dec 5, 2023 Read More »
It’s not often in Tucson you can bring tap dancers together with jazz musicians, but we were able to accomplish this for the Charlie Parker & Dave Brubeck Centennial Celebration School Show (belated from 2020) held on May 8, 2023, at Utterback Middle School (TUSD) in Tucson. Charlie Parker invented the bebop language and tap …
Ongoing donations to the Tucson Jazz Institute (TJI) Ben Stowers Scholarship Fund allow us to continue remembering Ben, his kindness, and his love of jazz music through awarding scholarships to middle and high school students and sponsorships of travel expenses to festivals and guest artists. To donate, you may use the PayPal links on this website …
The Tucson Jazz Institute bid farewell at their Spring Concert (May 14, 2023) to 14 seniors. All but one were in the TJI Ellington Big Band and they are leaving with a skillset not many high schoolers have the opportunity to achieve in Arizona. The Tucson Jazz Music Foundation is so very happy to have …
