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April 26-28, 2024
There are few careers that come close to mirroring Rickie Lee Jones’ emancipated and starry flight across our musical skies. The two-time Grammy winner first appeared on the scene in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, and in her wake came such a wide scope of women, from country, pop and punk. It’s hard to believe […]
Purple Hurt is loud, in your face, and wants you to know that they’ve arrived. Hailing from Washington, DC, Purple Hurt is an American Alternative Punk band that offers a genre-bending sound combining elements of punk, jazz, and screamo, into a fresh and high-energy package. The band’s formation in 2018 was one of serendipitous magnetism […]
Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives in the United States. The start of his journalism career coincided with the start of the war on terror, and over the following decade he reported from Afghanistan, Guantanamo […]
Mike Donehey has seen his fair share of the unexpected. Following a potentially fatal car crash as a teen, Mike learned to play the guitar while still in bed recovering from his injuries. Learning the guitar gave birth to songwriting, and that songwriting led to the formation of a band. That band, Tenth Avenue North, […]
Grammy Award winning Filmmaker and Tallahassee native Mary Wharton is known for her work on music documentaries such as “Sam Cooke Legend,” Joan Baez How Sweet the Sound” and “Tom Petty Somewhere You Feel Free.” Her father Bill Wharton, also known as The Sauce Boss, is a Tallahassee legend and internationally renowned recording artist whose […]
Marie Bostwick is a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller of nineteen books of contemporary and historical fiction. Drawing on her lifelong love of quilting and themes of special relevance to modern women, Marie’s Cobbled Court Quilt series has gained a dedicated following among quilters as well as those who’ve never threaded a needle. […]
Lindsey B. Sarjeant is a Professor of Music at Florida A&M University and serves as Chairman of the FAMU Music Department and arranger for the Incomparable Marching “100” Band, symphonic Band and jazz ensembles. He is past Director of Jazz Studies and is a brilliant jazz pianist, composer, jazz lecturer, jazz historian, adjudicator, Marching Band […]
Leon Anderson, Jr., Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies, joined the Florida State University faculty in 1998. His musical experience includes that of a classical and jazz percussionist, educator, clinician, and composer. Mr. Anderson earned the B.A. degree in Music Education at Louisiana Tech University and the M.A. degree in Percussion Performance at Southeastern […]
Larry Mitchell exemplifies the success that can be achieved when one chooses to follow his passion. The gifted Grammy Award winning performer, producer, and engineer continues to amaze. Larry’s guitar textures demonstrate his abilities as a solo artist and as an ensemble player. Larry has had the opportunity to tour with Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, […]
Kai Bird is a Pulitzer Prize winning historian who has published biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Robert Ames—and now The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. He has also authored a memoir about his childhood in the Middle East. He is the Director of the Leon Levy Center for […]