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Peer to Peer Program

Through the Institute’s Peer-to-Peer Jazz Education Tours, gifted student musicians from the National Performing Arts High Schools program present weeklong tours for their peers in other cities. The student musicians are accompanied by distinguished guest artists including vocalist Lisa Henry, saxophonists Antonio Hart and Bobby Watson, guitarist Kevin Eubanks, trumpeters Ingrid Jensen, Ambrose Akinmusire and Terell Stafford, pianists Herbie Hancock and Gerald Clayton, and bassist Christian McBride.

In May 2022, Institute students traveled to Wisconsin and Delaware for intensive performances, workshops and presentations for thousands of students at nearly a dozen public middle and high schools. Accompanied by jazz masters Bobby Watson, Sean Jones and Lisa Henry, the Peer-to-Peer groups also gave highly-anticipated concerts for local audiences at Milwaukee’s Bar Cento and renowned Baltimore jazz club Keystone Korner.

Click here for sample press coverage of the Institute’s Peer-to-Peer Jazz Education Tours.

Click here to support the Peer-to-Peer Program.

Program Information

On each day of the Peer-to-Peer tour, the musicians present an informance (informational performance) for the entire student body at a different school. They play various styles of jazz and talk with the student audiences about what jazz is, why it is important to America, and how a jazz ensemble represents a perfect democracy. Throughout each presentation, the student musicians and guest artists provide further insight into important values that jazz represents: teamwork, unity with ethnic diversity, the correlation of hard work and goal accomplishment, and the importance of finding a passion for something early in life and being persistent.

Following each informance, the guest instrumental artist presents a jazz workshop for the host school’s jazz band in which the visiting student performers play alongside their like-instrument counterparts, providing hands-on tutelage peer-to-peer. At the same time, the guest vocalist presents a vocal jazz workshop for the school’s choir. Each tour also includes public concerts at local jazz clubs or other performance venues, giving the touring student ensembles invaluable experience performing with renowned artists while developing jazz audiences for the future.

Peer-to-Peer Jazz Education Tours have been presented in Anchorage, Austin, Berkeley, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Indianapolis, Honolulu, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle. Each year, the program has resonated with students and adults alike.

The Peer-to-Peer program has impacted students in a total of 41 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia, since launching in 2005, with plans calling for tours to the remaining nine states in the coming years.

The Herbie Hancock Institute’s National Peer-to-Peer Education Program has lead funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and United Airlines.

More Videos

2022 National Peer-to-Peer Jazz Quintet Visits Delaware Public Schools
2022 Jazz Informance at the U.S. Department of Education
What Is Jazz, And Why It Is Important to The World | U.S. Dept. of Education Informance
2019 Peer-to-Peer Performance at Manchester, NH’s Central High
Peer-to-Peer Tour 2019 with Steve Wilson, Oklahoma City
Peer-to-Peer Tour 2018 with Don Braden, Sioux Falls
Peer-to-Peer Tour 2017 with Delfeayo Marsalis, Dallas
Peer to Peer Tour 2016 with Don Braden, Houston
Peer-to-Peer Tour 2015 with Charenee Wade and Bobby Broom, Phoenix
Peer to Peer Tour 2014 with Antonio Hart, Buffalo
Peer to Peer Tour 2013 with Ingrid Jensen, Memphis
Peer to Peer Tour 2012 with Christian McBride, Philadelphia
Peer to Peer Tour 2011 with Gerald Clayton, Omaha
Peer to Peer Tour 2010 Antonio Hart, Seattle
Peer to Peer Tour 2008 with Bobby Watson, Anchorage
Peer to Peer Tour 2008 with Antonio Hart, Salt Lake City

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