Jazz festival puts spotlight on young artists

For many, the Jazz Sudbury Festival is a chance to sit back and spend a weekend enjoying great music. For someone like Lia Tramontini, it's a chance to share their talents and love of the art with an audience.

“I started playing piano when I was about three years old,” said Tramontini, winner of the festival's Emerging Artist Showcase.
“My grandmother taught me how and my mother used to play the piano and sing when I was young. I used to accompany her all the time. 

“I started doing the same and I took classical music lessons until Grade 8 and I really didn’t like it. I didn’t like the structure, the practice and all that so I quit for a while until I started playing music that I liked to play.”

Tramontini was one of three emerging artist finalists to open for multiple Juno Award winning artists Oliver Jones at the Grace Hartman Amphitheatre on Sept. 6. The others were Abby Cassio and Melissa Lauren.

Tramontini said she sent in a video performance and was picked to compete in the contest.

“Jazz is a little out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I actually just kind of stumbled across this showcase and when I submitted the video, I didn’t know I was going to play a full set.”

Festival Manager Cecilia Aparicio said showcasing emerging artists is one of the major reasons why the festival was created.

“There were a lot of artists who were playing constantly and they didn’t have a large enough stage to play on to expose themselves to the community,” Aparicio said. “So we provided them a platform to ... show off their talents and play their hearts out.”

This year's edition of the festival included a new event -- the Jazz Walk.

“It was a board idea…they decided to try something new and interesting and this wild and interesting idea came up,” Aparicio said.

The Jazz Walk includes intimate, workshop style performances with the festival’s headliners Jack De Keyzer, Oliver Jones and Holly Cole, along with some local talent.

The activities took place on Sept. 7 starting at noon at the Hardrock 42 Gastropub, before proceeding to The Speakeasy on Durham Street, the Fromagerie on Elgin Street and ending at Tom Davies Square at 3:30 p.m. with a reception in honour of Oliver Jones, co-presented by Laurentian University.

The festival saw many outstanding artists on stage, including Holly Cole, Jack de Keyzer, Oliver Jones, Hugh Jazz, Sweet Jive and All Nations & Sarah Matt.