13th Annual Charles Mingus
virtual Festival
“Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
— Charles Mingus
CONGRATULATIONS
BATTLEGROUND HIGH SCHOOL Combo
BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL Big Band
DREYFOOS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Jazz Ensemble 1
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER Youth Orchestra
NEWTON SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL Jazz Ensemble
RIO AMERICANO HIGH SCHOOL’S QUARANTET
Nick Mahoney
Jonah Goldfarb
Yuao Zhou
Jackson Nesin-Perna
Cooper Malanowski
Jack Towse
Maxwell Barnes
Dylan Goodman
Laura SimonE Martin
Sophie Dunér
Ruby Farmer
Ido Leibowitz
Jackson Spellman
Zachary Williams
Roman Ullian
Adam Lord
Aidan Higgins
Coleman Stanton
Download the Mingus Zine
See the Program, Play the Video Scavenger Hunt, and More! Based on Sue Mingus’s cultural publication “Changes”
February 11 - 15, 2021
Presented by Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute, the Charles Mingus Festival shifts to the digital stage to celebrate the musical legacy of Great American Composer Charles Mingus!
Now in its 13th year, the Charles Mingus Festival provides a platform for young musicians to explore their voices through Mingus Music.
Presented online for the first time, this year’s Mingus Virtual Festival brings the experience of Mingus Music and New York City to young students, musicians, and audiences across the globe.
Festival weekend will feature virtual performances by students and professionals, instrumental master classes, skill building workshops, interviews, historical films, a celebration of Mingus Mondays, and a look into Mingus' epic masterwork, Epitaph.
Learn how to record at home, gain perspective from Mingus's sidemen and collaborators, and develop musicianship with members from the Grammy award-winning Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra.
In addition to traditional Combo and Big Band formats, submission categories were expanded to include virtual ensemble and individual activities including arranging, contrafact composition, contrafact transcription, performance transcription, and lyric writing.
The Festival will livestream at CharlesMingus.org on Thursday, February 11th through Monday, February 15th, 2021, with additional events on Zoom.
Tickets available for master classes and workshops below.
This year’s print-at-home festival program includes articles, games, and insights into the world of Mingus.
Please contact CMI directly by email for any questions.
We look forward to celebrating with you!
Founded by Sue Mingus in 1986, Let My Children Hear Music / The Charles Mingus Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserve and promote the compositional legacy of Charles Mingus through publishing, education, archival preservation and performance. Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. To make a donation, please send a check or money order to the address below or use the button above.
Watch broadcast events directly on this page.
Access Zoom classes by the ticket links below, or from participants “backstage” area.
OPEN ADMISSION FOR ALL FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS
CLICK THROUGH FOR TICKETED EVENTS
Together we make the complicated simple through creativity
Founded by Sue Mingus in 1986, Let My Children Hear Music / The Charles Mingus Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserve and promote the compositional legacy of Charles Mingus through publishing, education, archival preservation, and performance.
We provide high-quality resources and valuable training to students, scholars, educators and musicians through publications, performances, master classes, internship programs, private lessons, panel discussions, and much more. We partner with world-class educational institutions and present New York’s finest musicians as performers, arrangers, and mentors in myriad teaching opportunities. Current projects include Mingus Institute Online, tape preservation, living histories, performance initiatives, scholar publications, and widening access to scores for works such as Adagio Ma Non Troppo, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, and Epitaph.
“Let my children have music! Let them hear live music. Not noise. My children! You do what you want with your own!” - Charles Mingus
FESTIVAL SUBMISSION CATEGORY BREAKDOWNS
PAST FESTIVALS
12th Annual Charles Mingus Festival & high school competitioN
February 14-17, 2020
Produced by Let My Children Hear Music (The Charles Mingus Institute), and Dr. Keller Coker of The New School, the 12th Annual Charles Mingus High School Competition and Festival takes place in February. This year’s Festival includes a film showcase, student jams, a full day of instrumental clinics exploring the music of Charles Mingus, performances by the Mingus Big Band, and the nationwide Competition showcasing young jazz talent from high schools across the country. Outstanding Soloists have an opportunity to perform with the Mingus Big Band on Sunday night!
In addition, one $25,000 tuition scholarship to The New School will be awarded in the name of Charles Mingus, to a graduating senior participating in the Mingus Festival. Award will be based on Competition performance, and application and acceptance to The New School’s Jazz & Contemporary Music program.
Distinguished past adjudicators include: Gunther Schuller, Conductor/Composer, Pulitzer-Prize and MacArthur Grant Winner; Ken Pullig, Professor, Berklee College of Music; Justin DiCioccio, Director, Manhattan School of Music Jazz Arts Program; Conrad Herwig, Chair of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University; Robin Eubanks, Jazz Professor, Oberlin College; and musician/educators Boris Kozlov, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, Scott Robinson, Randy Brecker, Seamus Blake, Vincent Herring, Donny McCaslin, Christian McBride, Reggie Workman and many others.
All events are open to the public.
Can’t make it to New York City? You can still participate! Each school receives Mingus music for study, and expert feedback from Mingus musicians and educators!
Want to support this project? Please make a donation at the button below.
Music provided by:
Featured Festival Highlights
LET MY CHILDREN HEAR MUSIC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created in 1986 to promote the compositional legacy of musician and composer Charles Mingus thRough publishing, education, archival preservation, and performance.
Charles Mingus is recognized as a major 20th century composer, whose entire works have been acquired by the Library of Congress - a first for jazz, and a first for an African-American composer. Mingus left behind the largest legacy of composition in American music after Duke Ellington. The Mingus Bands remain devoted to this vast repertoire, and under the artistic direction of Sue Mingus, play to great critical acclaim around the world.
The Mingus Bands are available for concerts, residencies, master classes and commissions.
Donate to Let My Children Hear Music/The Charles Mingus Institute:
Founded by Sue Mingus in 1986, Let My Children Hear Music / The Charles Mingus Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserve and promote the compositional legacy of Charles Mingus through publishing, education, archival preservation and performance.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. To make a donation, please send a check or money order to the address below or use the button above.