Holly Hofmann, 2010 Jazz at Newport Music Director's welcome statement:
Welcome to Jazz at Newport 2010!
Thanks for spending a beautiful autumn weekend with us celebrating America’s classical music: Jazz!
I put myself on the schedule this year, and can’t wait to play music with my friends. As always, I’ve tried to include your all-time favorites as well as some artists you’ll enjoy hearing for the first time.
Even though I say this every year, I think this is our best line-up yet!
A little about Holly herself:
Born near Cleveland, Ohio, Holly at five began playing standards with her father, a jazz guitarist. Early exposure to jazz and popular standards would blossom into a love for straight-ahead jazz, but her parents were insistent that she have a solid background in classical technique. When she turned seven her formal education began with lessons from the first flutist of the Cleveland Orchestra, Maurice Sharp. Holly’s music education continued through high school at Interlochen Arts Academy. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado.
When Holly isn’t touring the globe she makes her home in San Diego, California where she’s enjoyed a long association with pianist Mike Wofford and bassist Bob Magnusson. She has nine critically acclaimed recordings as a leader and co-leads the new sextet Flutology, featuring fellow flutists Frank Wess and Ali Ryerson, with Mike Wofford, Peter Washington and Ben Riley. Her newest quartet recording Minor Miracle on Capri Records was released last year and features several compositions honoring legendary bassist Ray Brown with whom Holly performed in the United States and Europe during the last two years of his life. Some of her other notable collaborations include Bud Shank, Kenny Barron, Slide Hampton, Cedar Walton, Frank Wess, Bobby Shew and Marian McPartland. She also tours in a jazz and classical duo with pianist Bill Cunliffe. Ray Brown called them “the most dynamic duo in jazz.” Certainly a major cause of that statement is the joy Holly feels in the music and communicates so well from the stage, drawing in and exciting both knowledgeable jazz fans and new listeners to the genre.
