About Lake Anna Jazz
Lake Anna Jazz is a non-profit Virginia corporation, established in 2021 to promote the appreciation and understanding of jazz, one of America’s greatest gifts to world culture, and to provide opportunities for the residents and guests near Lake Anna, Virginia, to enjoy live performances of jazz, in its many forms.
Invest in Our Musicians
We support learning and performing music, as a lifelong pleasure. Our funding provides tutoring, workshops, and playing opportunities for students, as well as paying gigs for instrumentalists and vocalists.
Awards and Rewards
Local students with an ear for music and a heart full of jazz can audition and qualify for awards from Lake Anna Jazz, to help fund musical ambitions and/or further study.
Watch Music Come Alive
Listening, on its own, is great, but there’s nothing like being present at a live performance to watch a unique, quality product being created on the spot through a gifted ensemble’s labor of love.
Stimulate the Economy
The best taxpayers are the ones that come to your community, pay taxes on their meals, souvenirs, entertainment, and lodging — and then go back where they came from. High-quality jazz performances will bring folks to see and hear what Lake Anna has to offer.
Family Friendly Entertainment
Jazz is sophisticated, but it can also be overflowing with simple joy: a fascinating display of talent, mixed with years of disciplined study, that the whole family can appreciate.
Building Community
People of diverse backgrounds find a unifying bond in the appreciation of a jazz performance. You can bet there will be an enthusiastic but respectful audience at Lake Anna Jazz events.
Lake Anna Jazz in the Central Virginia Community
Robert McBride, President of Lake Anna Jazz, congratulates Louisa High School graduating senior Abby Burford and her father, Fred Burford, as they receive a gift of a Yamaha digital arranger piano from Lake Anna Jazz. Abby plans to use this sophisticated instrument as she pursues a musical career at college and as a local performer.
The Louisa High School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Micah Lee, performed at an end-of-year event hosted by Lake Anna Jazz at Everleigh Vineyards in Louisa County. Afterwards, the band members were invited to hear “Victor Haskins and Skein” perform inside the main building. At the end of the show, Lake Anna Jazz presented the LHS Music Department with a Peavey bass amp.
On December 14, 2023, Lake Anna Jazz joined with Callie Opie’s Orchard Restaurant to host “Crescendo Jazz Night” in Callie Opie’s event barn. This performance of student instrumentalists and vocalists was the senior project of Caitlyn Winslett, a graduate of the Virginia Blue Ridge Governor’s School.
Meet some of the student musicians who won a new instrument from Lake Anna Jazz:
Johnson Stiles
Travis Williams
Trevor Drake
Abby Burford
The purpose of LAKE ANNA JAZZ is to promote the education and appreciation of jazz, America’s unique musical art form, along with affording free access to live performances in the communities surrounding Lake Anna, Virginia. The corporation will be directed by board members who want to offer opportunities to their fellow citizens to enrich their musical literacy.
Officers
Our board members are driven by the need to preserve and share the cultural legacy of jazz, and they are eager to share the pure pleasure of hearing live renditions of its many styles, including but not limited to Traditional (Dixieland), Swing, Big Band, Cool, Latin, Be-Bop, and Fusion, as performed by both instrumental and vocal jazz artists.
LAKE ANNA JAZZ focuses its efforts on the area around Lake Anna, Virginia, which was formed in the early 1970s, following construction of a dam on the North Anna River to provide Virginia Electric Power Company (VEPCO) with a reliable source of water for its nuclear reactor power-generating station. The lake transformed what had been a rural and agricultural area into a popular destination, both for vacations and as a new home for many retirees from the Washington, DC area and nearby states.
The Rt 719 bridge under construction in the early 1970s, with the ground cover cleared to make way for the future lake. The original North Anna River can be seen running beneath the bridge and into the distance.
These visitors and new residents arrived at Lake Anna with few available options for live cultural and entertainment events. In addition to the retirees who had first-hand exposure to jazz, there are younger residents and visitors who would benefit from learning about it, enjoying high-quality performances, and hopefully, passing along their love for it to the next generation.
LAKE ANNA JAZZ intends to address this need through the charitable sponsorship of world-class jazz performances to educate and entertain the residents, visitors, and students throughout the Lake Anna community.
LAKE ANNA JAZZ has the following educational mission:
• To celebrate the impact of 20th Century jazz on dance, literature, and other aspects of American popular culture
• To introduce younger members of the community to the rich body of musical recordings and compositions that constituted what has been nicknamed the “Great American Songbook” of the 20th Century
• To inform the general public of the key contributions made to jazz by African-Americans, and how it inspired individual innovators and brave pioneers to bring about the nation’s first successful, racially-integrated music ensembles
• To supplement the ability of resource-challenged local schools to convey to their students the history, highlights, and happiness of jazz
• To provide opportunities for local music students to experience jazz workshops and live professional performances in their own community
Additionally, LAKE ANNA JAZZ has the following charitable mission:
• To sponsor free concerts by professional jazz artists in venues around Lake Anna
• To provide scholarships for music students attending school in the surrounding counties (Louisa, Orange, and Spotsylvania) so that they may benefit from having free private instrumental or vocal lessons, focusing on jazz performance
• To sponsor free “swing jazz” dance events, open to the public, featuring live big bands, soloists, singers, and ensembles
The ultimate goal of LAKE ANNA JAZZ is to generate enough interest and funding to sponsor an annual Lake Anna Jazz Festival, bringing performers and audiences from across the country and overseas to share their love of the jazz art form, as they discover the natural beauty of Lake Anna, the hospitality of Virginia’s residents, the many nearby historic attractions, and the services offered by our local businesses.
Notice to Potential Donors
Lake Anna Jazz has been determined by the IRS to be a pubic charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), thus qualifying donations as tax-deductible.