Healdsburg Jazz stimulates interest in and promotes awareness and appreciation of jazz by facilitating cross-cultural interaction, providing performance opportunities, and educating young people and adults about the important role of jazz as an indigenous American art form.

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival, a celebration of the indigenous American art form known as Jazz, has become a favorite local tradition with a growing national reputation. This annual Festival of performances by world-renowned musicians in diverse beautiful Sonoma County settings has grown over the past two decades into one of the North Bay’s most celebrated annual musical events.

In addition to the annual Festival, Healdsburg Jazz sponsors numerous free music education programs in Healdsburg area schools for primary and secondary school students, as well as for adults, and presents a series of Jazz Master concerts, discussions, and a variety of events throughout the year.

In 2019 Healdsburg Jazz hosted or co-hosted 120 jazz performances and music-related events, 75% of them completely free of charge, and it served about 2,000 children in our community. A real tour de force of Jazz, Education and Community. In 2020 the organization adapted to the limitations of the pandemic, with 85% of the events completely free, and around 4,000 attendees from all over the world joining in our virtual events.  In 2021 Healdsburg Jazz continued monthly virtual programming, presented video concerts, created educational programs that celebrate events such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Maya Angelou, and Juneteenth, and presented a live Festival (outdoors, distanced, covid-compliant) June 17-20. In 2022 the live Festival expanded to a full week. In 2023 Healdsburg Jazz celebrated 25 years with a remarkable nine-day festival June 17-25 featuring GRAMMY Award-Winning Best New Artist and Grammy Award-Winning Best Jazz Vocal album Samara Joy, NEA Jazz Master Dianne Reeves, Bill Frisell, and many so more. 2024 was the largest and most successful Healdsburg Jazz Festival to date, demonstrating the Power of Music with the return of multi-GRAMMY-Award Winning Samara Joy, Joshua Redman, Ambrose Akinmusire, and over 100 more celebrated artists. Over nine days, from June 15-23, 2024, Healdsburg Jazz presented 19 concerts in beautiful and historic venues throughout the wine country. In 2025, Healdsburg Jazz is delighted to present our inaugural Winter Festival from January 30 – February 2, 2025, our Summer Festival from June 13 – 22, 2025, and our most ambitious educational programming and community events to date. Join us!

Founded in 1999 by Jessica Felix, Marcus Shelby is the current Artistic Director. Healdsburg Jazz is a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.