George Wein, music
impresario, NEA Jazz Master and Grammy Award winner, will receive an Honorary
Doctorate at Boston University's (BU) 142nd Commencement on Sunday, May 17. The founder of the Newport Jazz Festival® (1954), Newport
Folk Festival® (1959), New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival™ (1970) and
countless other events around the world, Wein forever changed how music is
presented and, at 89, continues to build new audiences for emerging and
established artists at the iconic Rhode Island events.
Journalist and TV personality Meredith Viera will
deliver Boston University's Commencement
Address and Cornell William Brooks, president of the NAACP, will deliver
the Baccalaureate Address. Both will receive honorary degrees along with Wein
and Allen and Kelli Questrom, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and University
benefactors. The graduation ceremony, including the commencement
address and awarding of honorary degrees, can be watched via live webcast at
www.bu.edu or listened to on Boston radio station WBUR 90.9FM/www.wbur.org at
1:00 pm on Sunday.
Wein enrolled in premed courses at BU to please his
father, Barnet Wein, who graduated from the university with a medical degree in
1920. However, the younger Wein, whose heart was in jazz and performing, soon
realized that it was "a mistake" and graduated in 1950 with a degree
in history. Shortly after graduation, he
opened a jazz club, Storyville, in Boston's Copley Square Hotel. Already an
accomplished pianist, Wein performed in his club, and quickly turned it into a
music Mecca for some of the world's greatest musicians.
George Wein's years at BU ended up playing a major
role in his life in music.
Joel Brown wrote in today's edition of BU Today
(www.bu.edu/today/2015/george-wein-honorary-degree-bu):
Jazz fan Donald Born, a College of Arts & Sciences
professor of English, was a Storyville regular, and although Wein hadn't taken
a course with him, they became great friends. Wein's career as a music-festival
organizer had its origins at the club one night in 1953, when Born brought
wealthy Newport socialite Elaine Lorillard there. Lorillard, who had been
auditing one of Born's classes, was looking for ways to liven up Newport's
boring summers with some jazz. Born thought Wein might be able to help. The rest
is music history.
Wein also told Brown:
"I had a course in the theory of aesthetics that
has helped me all my life," he says. "It just caused me to think
about what the standards are for beauty and for love, on a very aesthetic
level, and as I've traveled around the world, looking at museums, looking at
architecture, that course gave me more enjoyment of life."
In addition to his life in jazz and folk music, Wein
has a long history of involvement with philanthropy and the arts, including the
establishment of the Joyce and George Wein Chair of African American Studies at
Boston University, the Alexander Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Simmons
College and an annual artist prize given through the Studio Museum in Harlem in
honor of his late wife, Joyce Alexander Wein.
George Wein founded the Newport Festivals Foundation™
in 2010 to enhance and continue the legacies of the famed Newport Jazz Festival
and Newport Folk Festival. Under the auspices of the Foundation, the Festivals
present performers who respect and honor jazz and folk music traditions, and at
the same time reflect the changes in today's musical trends. Through the
establishment of partnerships with local high schools, colleges/universities
and community organizations, the Foundation offers programs to educate young
people about jazz and folk music as presented at the annual festivals.
This year's Newport Folk Festival
(www.newportfolk.org) is set for July 24-26 and the Newport Jazz Festival
(www.newportjazzfest.org) takes place the following weekend, July 31-August
2. The Foundation also will present a
free Family Concert at Fort Adams State Park on July 29.
Photo credit: Ayano Hisa