The Arts Council of Wilmington, the NC Jazz Festival, and WHQR are hosting a celebration honoring Sandy Evans. The long-time NC Jazz Festival director was recently named a Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association. April is National Jazz Appreciation Month and a fitting time to celebrate Sandy’s national distinction.

A reception is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26, at 7pm in the M.C. Erny Gallery of WHQR. Seats are limited and can be reserved by emailing info@artswilmington.org. We hope you'll join us!

The Jazz Journalists Association has launched celebration of its 2023 slate of Jazz Heroes — 36 people in 32 U.S. cities who are “activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz,” aka the “A Team,” in the words that founded this honor in 2001.

Here’s Sandy’s profile on their site:

After 20 years on the board of the North Carolina Jazz Festival (NCJF) board, 17 as president, Sandy Evans is stepping down. Never fear – that does not mean that Wilmington, NC’s Jazz Hero is retiring from jazz. That would be most unlikely. Evans’s eight years on the board of the Cape Fear Jazz Society (CFJS) – from 1997 to 2005, the last three as president – were a glorious reign, during which she got what was perhaps her first taste of being able to exercise her passion for presenting world class music to audiences in local venues of southeastern North Carolina. Coupling that passion with a drive to provide young people with opportunities to experience first-hand great performances, Sandy spearheaded efforts to make sure concerts were heard in Wilmington-area public schools. She initiated a Jazz Scholarship Concert with the music department of University of North Carolina Wilmington that still occurs every April – Jazz Appreciation Month – and has resulted in the awarding of 25 musical scholarships.