RCS Honored by National Group for Saving JazzFest

Rutherford County Schools was recently recognized for bringing teachers, parents, school board members and community leaders together to save a beloved music festival.

Music for All – a national music education advocacy group – awarded its Advocacy in Action award for Community Involvement to the school district. The organization’s awards are “designed to collect, recognize, and share effective practices and initiatives that support music education in our schools,” according to its website.

In the fall of 2022, band directors were notified by Main Street Murfreesboro that it was ending its coordination of JazzFest after 25 years, a premier performance event for student groups and professional musicians.

JazzFest organizers cited logistical and financial challenges as well as the impact to businesses on the city’s Public Square in downtown Murfreesboro as reasons for foregoing the event.

It didn’t take long for a group of volunteers — led by Rutherford County Board of Education members Tammy Sharp, Katie Darby and Claire Maxwell — to find a solution.

“We just said, ‘This can’t happen to these kids. It’s their Super Bowl,’” Sharp said.

Within a few weeks, Scott Graby, developer of the Fountains at Gateway, agreed to provide the venue at no cost.

“If we hadn’t had a venue for them, it just would have been heartbreaking,” Sharp said. “These students are phenomenally talented. I’m glad the community was able to come through for them.”

On May 6, 2023, after about six months of intense planning and fundraising, 14 school groups performed before an estimated 4,000-plus attendees, according to the application submitted to Music for All by Alex Sears, band director at Rockvale High School.

“Given our limited time frame, we also made the decision to focus on the most important aspect of the event, which was the student performers and their experience. With that focus in mind, we shifted the event from a two-day event to a one-day event and scheduled professional groups throughout the day, so that student musicians had a chance to see those high-level performances,” Sears wrote in the application

A key component to ensuring the success of the new JazzFest was maintaining good relationships with previous organizers. The application noted Main Street Murfreesboro provided grant funding to help cover a major portion of the $11,000 budget.

RCS was one of six recipients, along with programs in Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Texas.

“We hope that by celebrating these programs, we can inspire others to lead by example and take action in their own programs and communities,” Music for All stated on its website.

JazzFest 2024 will take place Saturday, April 27, at The Fountains at Gateway.

The steering committee for the revamped JazzFest included Board of Education members Darby, Maxwell and Sharp, along with County Commissioner Phil Wilson; Lindsay Halford, RCS Fine Arts coordinator; Scott Kinney, Oakland Middle band director; Karl Wingruber, Saint Rose of Lima Catholic School band director; Beth Priest and Brandise Raikes, parent representatives; Ron Alley, Carpe Artista; Susan Gulley, Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau; and Thom Christy, local radio personality.