The 7th Annual Emerging Artist Festival will give young musicians from college and high school jazz ensembles a taste of performing in public. The two-day event beings with a Gallery Walk, at which time young musicians will perform. The Vermont Jazz Center and the 118 Elliot Art Gallery are teaming up to present the event.
The second day brings the headliner, Cameroonian American Ekep Nkwelle, a jazz vocalist. She has trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Howard University, and the prestigious Julliard School, where she was in its jazz graduate program. Nkwelle has shared the stage with artists such as Peter Washington, Endea Owens, and Russell Malone. She has appeared as a featured artist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and sung before audiences at some of the most iconic venues in the nation, including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, and Radio City Music Hall. A review says:
"[Nkwelle] makes herself eminently watchable with every hand gesture and interaction with the crowd."
The Emerging Artist Festival is scheduled for November 1 and 2, at the Vermont Jazz Center. Nkwelle appears on Saturday, November 2 at 7.30 pm. When organizers plan events like this, they may decide to contact a professional printer and ask them to use brochure printing to create programs for the concert, as audiences like to learn about performers.