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Edgefest

Edgefest
415 North Fourth Avenue

Edgefest is the 25th anniversary of the world-renowned avant-garde jazz and creative new music festival hosted by Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This year’s Edgefest will be a celebration of this unique festival as a defining event in our creative jazz community. Edgefest 2021 will draw upon some of the most noteworthy artists of the festival’s history, while continuing to chart new directions for the festival in the years to come.

Events will include ticketed concerts on Thursday and Friday evening, as well as Saturday all day and evening. These concerts will feature composer-led and collaborative ensembles of international stature, including many of the artists who have given Edgefest memorable moments over the past 25 years. Additionally, Edgefest 25 will highlight unique collaborations between visiting artists and artists/composers who live and work in SE Michigan. Edgefest concerts will take place in KCH’s intimate concert hall and at the Bethlehem United Church of Christ just down the street from KCH.

Edgefest 25 will engage our community with an artistic experience that expands their musical, cultural, intellectual, and worldviews of art music. Edgefest is the only festival in our area dedicated to presenting the very best groundbreaking artists and composers in today’s world of avant-garde jazz and creative improvised/composed music, increasing community exposure to this unique art music. Innovation: One of the most vital and innovative forms of artistic expression in our country today, avant-garde jazz and creative improvised/composed music does not fit into pre-defined genres (i.e. jazz, rock, blues, classical, folk, etc); indeed it often blends these styles into something new and different. As a result, this music regularly receives less critical and popular attention than other forms because of these decidedly non-commercial aspects, and is rarely heard outside of a few large cultural centers such as New York or Chicago. Edgefest 2021 will celebrate the festival by reviewing its evolution as an important influence on the music and artistic community and renewing its commitment to continue exploring new directions and invite the community to join in the fray.

Recent News

27th Annual Edgefest

Schedule: Wednesday, October 18, 2023 7:00 p.m: Tim Haldeman, saxophone and Jesse Kramer, drums: A Tribute to the late Barbara Kramer, Jesse’s mother Sponsored by: Ferguson, Widmayer, and Clark PC 8:00 p.m: James Ilgenfritz (bass/composer)…

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