FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2011

Summit Will Be Held August 30-31, 2012 at Detroit Jazz Festival

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The 2012 JazzWeek Summit will depart its longtime home in Rochester, N.Y., for Detroit.

The Summit, which will mark its 10th occurence in 2012, will be held on August 30 and 31 in advance of the 33rd Detroit Jazz Festival.

“We’re thrilled to be able to bring the jazz radio and record industry to the best free jazz festival in the world next year,” said Ed Trefzger, Editor and Publisher of JazzWeek, in making the announcement at the 2011 JazzWeek Summit. “We’re extremely grateful for the enthusiastic welcome we’ve received from festival Executive and Artistic Director Terri Pontremoli and all of the people involved in the Detroit Jazz Festival.”

The Detroit International Jazz Festival was founded in 1980 to bring people into the city and to provide all segments of the population with world-class entertainment. From 1980 to 1991, the festival flourished through a partnership with the highly regarded international jazz festival in Montreux, Switzerland, sharing performers and commissioned poster art. In 1991, the festival merged with Detroit’s Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, where it resided until September 2005.

In March 2005, Detroit philanthropist and Mack Avenue Records Chairman Gretchen Valade emerged as a major sponsor of the festival. In January 2006, Valade founded the Detroit International Jazz Festival Foundation, which took over production and management of the festival. Valade also committed $10 million to establish an endowment that would provide much-needed seed money for festival operations.

The JazzWeek Summit, first held in 2002, is a gathering of jazz radio programmers and broadcasters – both terrestrial and internet-only – program producers, record promoters, record labels, artists and management to discuss the issues specific to jazz radio and promotion. The Summit has met all but one year since its inception and eight of those nine years in Rochester alongside the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival.

“We’ve enjoyed being in Rochester all of the past several years,” Trefzger explained. “But to continue to grow the Summit and make it accessible and affordable for more to attend, we’re making the move to the Motor City. We look forward to seeing return attendees in Detroit and new faces as well.”

Details on the location and registration information for the 2012 JazzWeek Summit will be announced at http://summit.jazzweek.com/ in the fall of 2011.