ABOUT

NYC Winter Jazzfest is a dynamic catalyst for the future of jazz, showcasing a wide spectrum of innovative artists while championing the music’s role as a force for cultural and social change. Now over two decades strong, the festival is a vital platform for emerging talent, offering artists meaningful exposure through alignment with the APAP conference and access to a global network of industry professionals who attend every year. With a deep commitment to expanding jazz’s audience, Winter Jazzfest creates an inclusive atmosphere welcoming younger listeners and those from diverse musical backgrounds, reflecting the genre’s ever-evolving identity. Honoring the tradition of jazz as protest music and music reflecting the greater social context of society, the festival seeks to amplify artists who address messages of social justice, wellness, and community building in their music—demonstrating how music can build community, healing, and societal progress on and off the stage.

Since its founding in 2005, Winter Jazzfest has cemented a reputation as a hotbed of cultural discovery, presenting new and exciting sounds and scenes throughout New York.

Praised by New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR and others, the festival continues to grow as a dynamic rate, from its original one-day single-location program, to a 2020 itinerary that spanned 21 stages over eleven nights, in Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, featuring over 700 artists, and more than 170 groups. In 2015, the festival was voted “#1 Jazz Festival in North America” by JazzTimes magazine, and has become a pivotal destination for any arts leaders and cultural cognoscenti who visit the city early in the year.

The music marathon that takes place during the festival’s Friday and Saturday nights has, in particular, become recognized as a crucial, unique New York nightlife offering, giving audiences full access to all participating venues from early evening, deep into the wee wee hours. Winter Jazzfest is an unparalleled experience for educated consumers of jazz, experimental sound and global creative impulses. In 2020, that meant welcoming 17,000 deeply engaged audience members. Due to the challenges faced by the pandemic the 2021 festival offered continuity through conversations, programming, and other virtual programming in January 2021 and 2022. The festival returned to an in-person model in 2023 and has continued in its three-tiered mission to showcase and support emerging musicians; to cultivate a diverse audience that includes avid jazz fans, new listeners, industry professionals, and cultural tastemakers from around the world; and to support musicians who amplify messages social justice in their music.

”The role of the artist is to reflect the times." - Nina Simone


Brice Rosenbloom, Founder and Producer
Winter Jazzfest was founded by Brooklyn-based music curator and concert promoter Brice Rosenbloom. Rosenbloom is President of NYC concert promotion and production company BOOM Collective, presenting concerts and festivals in NYC and beyond. Rosenbloom is proud to have honed his curatorial vision while working at Le Poisson Rouge, Central Park SummerStage, The Knitting Factory, MAKOR, Jazz At Lincoln Center, and while consulting for various other venues, festivals and cultural institutions. Additionally, Rosenbloom presents events, festivals, and programming in venues around NYC including Carnegie Hall, King’s Theatre, Beacon Theater, The Knockdown Center, The Town Hall, The Apollo Theatre, Brooklyn Masonic Temple, Webster Hall, Brooklyn Steel, Pioneer Works, Xanadu, various churches, warehouses and more. In 2005 Rosenbloom launched the NYC Winter Jazzfest to give exposure to underserved jazz artists. As the festival has grown over the past 21 years, The New York Times calls Winter Jazzfest “the city’s most renowned jazz festival.” 

During the pandemic when live music halted, Rosenbloom pivoted attention to supporting the music community and towards racial and gender justice activism. In April 2020 Rosenbloom helped launch Jazz Coalition, a grass-roots organization committed to unifying the jazz community around efforts that uplift musicians during the pandemic. The Jazz Coalition’s Commission Fund raised over $100,000 and commissioned over 100 jazz musicians worldwide with grants to create new work. In June 2020 Rosenbloom became a steering committee member of The Blacksmiths, an organization committed to fostering racial equity in the arts sector, and to infusing the racial justice movement with art and music. Rosenbloom is also a steering committee member of This Is A Movement, an initiative seeking to create a more equitable music industry with a specific focus on gender justice within the jazz, Black American music, and creative music communities.

In 2016, Rosenbloom received the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award for extraordinary leadership and vision in expanding the audience for jazz. In 2024, Rosenbloom was awarded the Jazz Hero Award from the Jazz Journalists Association recognizing industry professionals who make a positive impact in their community.

Rosenbloom is also the Artistic Director at World Music Institute; curates the BRIC Jazz Festival; and independently presents other events around NY.