Our Crowdfunding Groups
Left Bank Big Band, USC's premier jazz ensemble, has received invitations to perform at two of the most prestigious international jazz festivals: the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and the Jazz à Vienne in France in July 2025. To accept this life-changing opportunity, USC Jazz Studies needs your support.
Your gift of any amount will allow these students to perform on some of the most famous jazz stages in Europe by directly supporting the travel costs for each musician.
About the Umbria Jazz Festival
Carlo Pagnotta, born in 1933, thus recounts the birth of the Hot Club Perugia. This idea took shape in the early 1950s from conversations in a record store in Perugia between him and a small group of jazz enthusiasts. From the experience of the Hot Club – the concerts of Louis Armstrong in 1955 at the Teatro Morlacchi and Chet Baker in 1956 at the Sala dei Notari remain historical – the urgency to create an event to provide a cultural alternative with international jazz names and a chance for tourism and notoriety for the beloved Umbria region.
So Carlo founded Umbria Jazz, of which he immediately became artistic director, a role he still has today. The year is 1973, and a history of great successes, challenging moments and an inexhaustible passion begins, leading Umbria Jazz to change, modify, and evolve, always remaining focused on the main objective of linking a global vision to the promotion of a great small region.
About Jazz à Vienne
The Théâtre Antique, which was built in the 1st century CE, is Jazz à Vienne’s epicentre. Its unique acoustics and history make it an exceptional venue for both audiences and the internationally renowned musicians who perform there. The festival is a true blend of old and new, an authentic musical fusion. Rich in its diversity, it aims to be a pluralist space that is open to all.
Sponsor the trip's cost for a member of the Left Bank Big Band and be the star of the show!
