The Washington Women in Jazz Festival was born out of the necessity for more feminine representation in the genre. The festival’s founder, Amy K. Bormet, is a vocalist and pianist who noticed the lack of performance opportunities for women and nonbinary jazz artists.
“It’s something I took personally,” she told WTOP, which led her to create the WWJF. Now, 15 years later, the festival celebrates its anniversary in Dupont Circle.
The inaugural event in 2011 took place at the now-closed Twins Jazz Club on U Street. Since then, the festival has sung its tune at venues such as Blues Alley and Bohemian Caverns, as well as DIY spaces like Rhizome and Union Arts.
This year, the festival will take place at the Penn Arts Building, a historic mansion in Dupont Circle that normally serves as the headquarters of the National League of American Pen Women. This weekend, March 29 and March 30, starting Saturday at 11 a.m., the mansion will be filled with workshops, performances, and jam sessions.
Bormet praised the venue: “They have a wonderful salon with a grand piano, and it’s a really intimate space. It only seats about 100 people, so it’s a cool vibe to be in this mansion, hanging out all day, and seeing a lot of different types of people come in and out.”
This is an interactive event.
Audiences will have the opportunity to observe and learn during workshops and lectures led by top musicians and university professors. Both days will end with jam sessions where the audience is invited to play along. Saturday night will feature a traditional jam led by Bormet herself, focusing on jazz standards.
On Sunday night, there will be a “Wandering Jam,” where musicians will be scattered throughout the mansion, and audiences will be encouraged to create music with them. The community orchestra, Regenerate!, will have an open rehearsal in which the audience plays a pivotal role in the performance.
“It’s led by a wonderful cellist, Wesley Hornpetrie. She incorporates lots of different types of music making, so even if you don’t read music or aren’t a professional musician, you can still participate in her Regenerate Orchestra,” Bormet said.
For those who feel nervous about joining in, Bormet offered reassurance: “The thing about improvising is that everybody is taking a risk … If you ‘mess up,’ you didn’t really mess up; you just took a different direction than expected.”
The festival will feature two artists-in-residence: Allison Crockett and Alex Hamburger.
A Manhattan School of Music alum, Crockett considers herself “a musician who comes out of the jazz tradition, the Black music tradition, where jazz artists take established forms and reimagine them in new and different ways,” according to her artist biography. Alex Hamburger, a Maryland native, honed her craft at the Washington Women in Jazz Festival.
One of the most important events during the festival is the Emerging Artist Showcase, where college-age women and nonbinary musicians from the DMV area and beyond have the chance to perform.
Amy Bormet reflected that, 10 years ago, Hamburger was one of those musicians: “…So now to have her come back as an artist-in-residence is super cool. It’s sort of a full-circle moment for me to understand what the Washington Women in Jazz Festival has built and how it has supported young, emerging, and established musicians. It’s created a real network, a real scene, and an opportunity — a platform — for women to showcase their music.”
The festival prides itself on being a hub for networking among women musicians, both in the D.C. area and globally.
Bormet told WTOP that because local artists have collaborated with those from the West Coast, Europe, and South America, it has “really strengthened our scene and also strengthened the understanding that women have always been playing this music since the beginning of jazz. It’s a really beautiful experience, and a lot of people have told me that they really appreciate being there — not only as musicians but also as audience members — seeing women musicians, especially women instrumentalists.”
Bormet also said the festival is about pushing the genre forward. “Our artist-in-residence, Allison Crockett, does a lot of pop tunes from the ’80s and ’90s that she’s reharmonized and changed the arrangements of, making them even more fascinating … [Alex Hamburger] puts her flute through guitar pedals and various electronic filters on a pedal board, creating amazing sound combinations. Everything is possible within this music.”
The Washington Women in Jazz Festival begins Saturday, March 29 and goes through Sunday, March 30 at The Pen Arts Mansion, at 1300 17th St NW. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit their website.
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