51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Rootabaga Jazz Festival
May 6-10, 2025

Mark your calendars for the 2025 51³Ô¹ÏÍø-Rootabaga Jazz Festival featuring DC & the Love, Juan Pastor's Chinchano, and Mar Vilaseca!

The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø-Rootabaga Jazz Festival is a five-day event that partners 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, the Galesburg community, and local artists and musicians, and has been a part of the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's Department of Music for over 40 years. The festival boasts performances by the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Jazz Ensemble, faculty, alumni, and guest artists. The festival focuses on collaborations between guest artists and students, and performances in various venues around the community. 

Jerome Mirza Jazz Residency
TBD

The Jerome Mirza Jazz Residency is designed to benefit 51³Ô¹ÏÍø students, jazz practitioners, and audiences of jazz lovers from the Galesburg and surrounding communities by bringing world-renowned jazz artists to campus for a week of intensive and collaborative jazz activities, culminating in a free public concert. The Jerome Mirza Foundation supports programs in education and the arts and was created by a bequest from Jerome Mirza, an attorney who served as president of the Illinois State Bar Association and Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. Mirza was a passionate jazz aficionado, and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is pleased to have this opportunity to honor his memory by sharing the love of jazz with the campus and Galesburg communities. Mirza's daughter, Candace Mirza of Wilmette, Illinois, is a 1981 51³Ô¹ÏÍø graduate.