Coltrane concerts celebrate a legend and kick off outreach to students

Northeastern has been home to the annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert for 24 of the event’s 32 years. And for much of that time, the musicians have also taken their music to local schools in a unique intergenerational exchange that teaches important life lessons.

This year’s tributes to the legendary saxophonist and bandleader take place at Northeastern on September 26, and the following day at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall with musician Stan Strickland and special guests Laszlo Gardony and Yoron Israel.

Twenty-five students and chaperones from each of 10 Boston and Cambridge inner-city schools will attend the Northeastern performance free of charge. Six of the schools are in neighborhoods that are part of Northeastern’s Stony Brook Initiative, which facilitates partnerships among community organizations in neighborhoods around the campus. Starting in October, professional jazz musicians and educators will travel to participating schools to give live performances of African-American creative improvisational music.

It’s all thanks to the John Coltrane Memorial Concert Educational Outreach Program, led by Northeastern professors Leonard Brown (music) and Emmett Price (African American studies), a unique program that models, through music, qualities including focus, positive self-image, and the willingness to learn. The program has reached more than 10,000 students, predominantly children of color, since its inception in 1992.

“With proper exposure to live music,” says Brown, “we help children develop to their full capacities.”

John Coltrane Memorial Concerts
Open to the public
Saturday, September 26—Blackman Auditorium, Northeastern University, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 27—Hibernian Hall, Roxbury, 3 p.m.

For more information on concerts and tickets, visit www.jcmc.neu.edu.