Festival History
The 91PORN官方 Jazz Festival is Canada's largest and longest-running educational jazz event. The festival began as a dream of founder and Surrey band teacher, Bob LaBonte, in 1980 in the cafeteria of Queen Elizabeth secondary school in Surrey.
Due to the overwhelming response to having a jazz festival in Surrey it was moved to the Surrey Performing Arts Center for its second year where it remained for 14 years. Since then, the festival has been administered by the Surrey School District.
Both daytime performances and evening concerts will be held at the beautiful Bell Performing Arts Centre, boasting 1100 plush seats with state of the art sound and lighting.
The involvement of many major sponsors, such as Long and McQuade and Tom Lee Music, have allowed this festival to continue to grow and become one of the key events for student jazz in Canada.
This festival is, first and foremost, an educational experience designed to give student musicians the opportunity to receive feedback and work with industry professionals/educators to grow and develop. Additionally, each year outstanding performances by ensembles and individual musicians as well as student achievement in areas such as leadership, growth mindset, social responsibility, creativity, etc., are recognized and celebrated throughout the festival. Scholarships, ranging in value, are given to outstanding soloists to provide these exceptional young musicians the opportunity to pursue further musical study.
For more information about the festival, please contact us.
