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About the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival

Since the 1960s, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival has brought jazz masters to University of Idaho to share this truly American art form with elementary, junior high, high school and college students. The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival has grown from a one-day event to a three-day on-campus experience.

The first University of Idaho Jazz Festival took place in 1967, with a dozen student groups and one guest artist. The festival continued to grow — erupting onto the national stage in 1982, when thousands of students and spectators came to hear Ella Fitzgerald.

In 1984, the festival’s most important relationship began when Lionel Hampton joined the excitement in Moscow. Inspired by the enthusiasm of the students, Hamp pledged his support to the festival, and in 1985, the festival was renamed in his honor.

Now, having hosted thousands of students, spectators and artists — including Doc Severinsen, Bobby McFerrin, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, The Manhattan Transfer and countless other musicians from around the world – the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival is three days of student performances, workshops, clinics and world-class evening concerts.

Rooted in Hamp’s legacy, the festival celebrates its fifth decade by continuing to advance jazz education and inspire the next generation of musicians.

Festival overview and history

Doc Skinner

Over the last five decades, the jazz festival at University of Idaho has been led by a handful of committed directors. But there’s one man who is credited with transforming the event into the nationally known tradition it has become today: Doc Skinner.

Two men in suits stand together while smiling
In this photo from Special Collections and Archives at University of Idaho Library, Lynn “Doc” Skinner and Lionel Hampton pose for a picture in 1990.

Lynn “Doc” Skinner has been part of the jazz festival since he arrived in Moscow in the early ’70s as the director of music education at the university. He became festival director in 1976, and in 1984, Skinner invited Lionel Hampton to the festival. The pair of musicians bonded over a passion for jazz and a shared dream to keep the art form alive and well through youth education, forming a partnership and friendship that infused the festival with an inspiring energy and a renewed focus on educating the next generation of jazz musicians. Skinner served as executive director of the festival — which was renamed in Hamp’s honor in 1985 — until he retired in 2007. During his tenure as executive director of the festival, he brought some of the world’s greatest jazz artists to Moscow. In addition to Lionel Hampton, headliners included Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Toots Thielemans, Ray Brown and Sarah Vaughan.

Thanks to Skinner’s efforts, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival received the National Medal of Arts in 2007. In 2010, his impact on music education was recognized with the Governor’s Awards in the Arts for Support of Arts Education from Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter.

Doc Skinner continues to share his passion of jazz by teaching and attending the festival each year.

National Medal of Arts

As the nation honored jazz great Lionel Hampton during his centennial birth year in 2008, the White House gave accolades to Hampton’s jazz and education legacy – a legacy that endures in the seemingly unlikely locale of Moscow, Idaho.

The University of Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival received the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s most prestigious arts award, from President George W. Bush in 2007 as part of this celebration of Hampton’s legacy.

Former university President Timothy P. White and festival Artistic Director John Clayton accepted the medal in a White House ceremony.

“This recognition affirms the vision shared by Lionel Hampton and the university about the power of jazz and education to bridge cultures, inspire creativity and develop the musical leadership abilities of the next generation of jazz leaders,” White said.

Hampton envisioned more than an annual gathering of the world's top jazz musicians in the heart of winter in a small university town. He had a bigger dream — investing in future generations to perpetuate jazz as an art form and providing young students with a great introduction to a uniquely American style of music.

In 1985, the festival was renamed the Lionel Hampton/Chevron Festival in his honor and rededicated as the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in 2006. Hampton died in 2002 at age 94.

Jazz in the Schools

The Jazz in the Schools program began in 1995. The program takes visiting musicians to elementary schools in northern Idaho and eastern Washington to introduce students to this truly American art form.

Learn more about the Jazz in the Schools program

Program archives

The International Jazz Collections (IJC) in University of Idaho's Library holds materials from the festival’s past dating back to the late 1960’s. The IJC is the preeminent jazz archive in the Pacific Northwest and features archival materials from the estates of Lionel Hampton, Pete and Conte Candoli, Al Grey, Ray Brown, Leonard Feather, Dizzy Gillespie and many more.

Our people

Navin Chettri, manager
nchettri@uidaho.edu
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Vanessa Sielert, education advisor
vanessas@uidaho.edu
See full profile

Vern Sielert, artistic director
verns@uidaho.edu
See full profile

Monica Evans, operations coordinator
mrevans@uidaho.edu
See full profile

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Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival 

Email: jazzinfo@uidaho.edu
Phone: 208-885-5900
Mailing Address:

875 Perimeter Dr., MS 4015
Moscow, ID 83844-4015

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