1st Ever Key of She Jazz Conference | 2019
The inaugural Key of She Jazz Conference in 2019 was a full day event hosted in Philadelphia at the University of the Arts. The day included an Opening Session which featured Key of She Jazz Speakers, Keynote Speaker, and Kick-Off Performance. We the split up the day with various masterclasses, performances, speakers, and more!
Portions of our event were livestreamed! Click the buttons below to view!
Our Goals for our Events:
The goal of the conference is to encourage and support girls who are already playing jazz, inspire more girls to get involved, and to talk about how to support girls and young women in a field where they are under-represented. Ultimately, we hope to equalize the male:female ratio in the jazz world, both in education and in industry. By hosting this conference, we hope to empower young jazz musicians to be the best they can be, provide ideas and strategies to parents and educators about how to encourage girls, and to share the love of jazz across a wide variety of people. Please note that both BOYS, GIRLS, MEN, WOMEN, AND those beyond the binary are invited to participate! It's important to have everyone "at the table" to create dialogue. We hope you will join us!
What'd I miss at the first Key of She Conference?!
Thank you so much to everyone who came to our first Key of She Jazz Conference! We had a great turnout with about 200 attendees. The day featured speakers, performers, masterclasses, panelists, and workshops.
We started our day with Baltimore School for the Arts Chamber Jazz Ensemble who played as guests arrived. To kick off the conference, we heard from Key of She Founder and Artistic Director, Olivia Hughart, and Leading Advisor Dr. Jenny Neff at University of the Arts. We then heard from our keynote speaker, Dr. Virginia Allen, who inspired everyone in the room. Sister group to the world-renowned DIVA Jazz Orchestra, FIVE PLAY gave an amazing performance to lead us into our break out sessions!
We broke out into masterclasses led by FIVE PLAY members and UArts Faculty for the students, and others went to "Fostering the Girls in the Group" or a screening of the documentary, "The Girls in the Band." Our second block of sessions featured "Careers in Music & Beyond", "Key of She Meets Z: Open Clinic", "The Art of Improvisation", and "College Planning for Musicians". Our final break out session included "How to Start Your Own Key of She", a Performance and Q & A with Tony Miceli and Diane Monroe, and "Using Music to Create Positive Social Change". We reconvened at the end of the day for a performance by the UArts "Rick Kerber Tribute Ensemble", "Trumpet Chics", and even a raffle with door prizes!
We concluded our afternoon with a reception in the lobby to network and have the opportunity to meet some of the awesome people we had at our conference.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and attendees all resoundingly support a second conference! Since this event, we have hosted numerous virtual experiences to continue to build community. Subscribe to our mailing list to hear what we're up to!
