Berklee Today: The Jazzaar Festival Marks 15 years
Helen and Fritz Renold
Photo by Mark Small
Matt Marvuglio (center) and woodwind students rehearse Porgy and Bess with Randy Brecker.
Photo by Mia Olson
Renold and Brecker rehearse for the Miles Davis tribute.
Photo by Gildas Boclé
After completing their education, many Berklee international students return home with a zeal to share their educational experience with their countrymen. The husband-and-wife team of Fritz Renold '87 and Helen Savari-Renold '89, of Schönenwerd, Switzerland, is no exception. For the past 15 years, the Renolds have produced the much-celebrated festival Jazzaar, which has grown to become one of Europe's best youth jazz education endeavors.
The Renold's approach adds a twist to the long-standing jazz tradition of young players learning to perform by sitting in with seasoned veterans on the bandstand. Each year the Renolds have brought notable jazz musicians—including Randy Brecker, Benny Golson, Mark Soskin, Buster Williams, Tommy Campbell '79, Victor Lewis, Miroslav Vitous '67, Adam Nussbaum, and others—to perform as soloists and section players working alongside top teenage musicians of the Neue and Alte Kantonsschule in Aarau, Switzerland. There's nothing like ironing out the details of new music with a mentor who is going through the same process.
Read more about Fritz and Helen Renold and the Jazzaar Festival in Berklee Today.