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| New Home for Festival de Jazz de Montreal The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal will finally have a home! The organizers of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal are very happy to witness the realization of their grandest dream: a Maison du Festival de Jazz, featuring its own concert venue, will finally see the light of day, right in the heart of the Festival site and the new Quartier des spectacles. This project, a dream organizers have worked on for over a decade, promises benefits at every level: for devoted and curious fans who can see and hear jazz musicians all year long, for artists and their music, and for Montreal as a whole--which will enjoy the positive spinoffs and tourist potential of the new site, and reinforce its image as a cultural metropolis. Moreover, the Festival is thrilled to contribute to the revitalization of the Blumenthal Building, an exceptional heritage site right in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles. Thanks to this project, the building will be granted a second life confirming its essential cultural significance to the dynamism of the area. A timely gift for the 30th anniversary of the Festival! The Maison du Festival de Jazz will at once serve as a permanent showcase for our jazz, blues and world music artists; a hall of fame and exhibition centre; an important resource for audiovisual documentation, conservation and protection of the Festival's musical heritage, accessible to the greater public; and a headquarters for the promotion of jazz and musicianship at the international level. The Maison will serve to meet the demands of the Festival season and adequately accomodate the Festival's press room and logistical and technical centres, which can also service other festivals using the new adjacent public area. In a time when most of our major cultural institutions already enjoy the respectability of permanent sites thanks to governmental aid, the Festival was determined to finally create its own permanent residence and showcase between now and its 30th anniversary in 2009, offering year-long access to the music which it is devoted to promoting. This announcement arrives at the perfect time, as the Festival has become one of Montreal's most important cultural symbols, generating over 100 million dollars in annual tourist spinoffs and over 2.5 million visits, making it the number one draw of its kind according to the Guinness Book of Records. Oliver Jones set to inaugurate the Maison du Festival de Jazz Oliver Jones has accepted our invitation to inaugurate the Maison du Festival de Jazz in June 2009, presenting the first performance in the 300-capacity concert venue on the ground floor of the new home of jazz. The building which will house the Maison du Festival de Jazz--the Blumenthal Building on the corner of Ste. Catherine and De Bleury Streets--has in fact been used by the Festival for years as a logistical centre (security and communications base, food and souvenir distribution centre, artists' dressing rooms, etc.). The governmental aid granted to the Festival will not only allow it to rejuvenate a building that no longer meets current standards for occupation, but also finally facilitate the creation of one of the flagships of a new Quartier des spectacles and, by the same token, enhance Montreal's image as a cultural metropolis. Nearing its 30th anniversary, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is happy to be recognized for its true value in its hometown and to receive this significant support from the Government of Qubec, support that will finally allow it to fulfill its mandate throughout the year. For its part, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, in collaboration with its other partners, will inject an additional sum of over four million dollars in order to properly develop sites destined for public access, and to acquire necessary technical equipment. The Maison du Festival de Jazz is certain to become one of the city's most notable cultural tourist attractions, in a time when many other major metropolitan centres are pouring massive investment into stealing away Montreal's title as the “City of Festivals." We can already confirm that the 29th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal will be a vintage year, judging by these incredible artists already announced for the 2008 program! From Aretha Franklin to Steely Dan and a roster of the foremost ambassadors of jazz and its musical cousins, the world's greatest musicians and interpreters are heading to the premiere summer musical event, presented by General Motors in collaboration with Rio Tinto Alcan. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |