When you want to watch live jazz in San Francisco, where do you go? The Fillmore District? Yoshi’s? Well, the SFJAZZ Center wants you to go somewhere else. This January, the brand new SFJAZZ Center will unveil its new building in Hayes Valley near City Hall.
New music venues pop up in San Francisco all the time, right? This one’s different. It will be the first freestanding building for jazz in the country. It’s not just any old building, either. Designed by award-winning architect Mark Cavagnero, the transparent structure is 35,000 square feet and will house SFJAZZ season performances, education programs, retail shop and box office and a café and bar.
A few other features you won’t want to miss are the Robert N. Miner Auditorium – a state-of-the-art concert space constructed to accommodate 350-700 seats that surround the stage on all sides – and the ensemble room, which is a more intimate, 80-seat space for performances, rehearsals and gatherings.
The celebratory reveal with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, music and tours is on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, January 21). On January 23, the Historic Opening Night Concert will be held, hosted by Bill Cosby and featuring big names in jazz such as McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Joshua Redman Esperanza Spalding and more.
Check out the entire 2013 SFJAZZ season, which runs through June.
sfjazz.org