President's Message

(2011) As we embark on the twentieth anniversary season of Gold Coast Jazz, it's inspiring to think what a grand, swinging ride has flowed from a night on the waterway 20 years ago with our founder Fred Ruffner, pouring some drinks, sharing some stories, and dreaming a future for great live music around Fort Lauderdale.

The cruise continues, with a spectacular new crew of performers on deck this year at the Amaturo, ready to clear any fog and blow Admiral Fred and the rest of us right out of our bunks! So many wonderful friends, our subscribers, donors, and loyal members have pitched in along the way to keep us fueled and provisioned and to steer us around the shoals.

Over the last year Gold Coast Jazz reached more than 11,000 people through our programs. This includes more than 5,500 students, from pre-school through high school, some of whom were experiencing their very first live jazz performance.

We awarded 32 scholarships totaling over $52,000, from our Jeanette M. Russell Scholarship Fund and--for the first time ever--from the new Eddie Higgins Scholarship Fund. What a tremendous memorial for our friends, Lady Jazz, St. Louie Ray, and now Eddie.

Though we can't hear Eddie Higgins on our stage anymore, it won't be long before we're booking some of the talented kids who have benefited from our programs and scholarships. More than 100 of them participated in our First Friday Jazz Jams, working with professional musicians and learning from each other as they performed and improvised for live audiences.

We took jazz all over town this year, from the Sun Trust Jazz Brunch on New River to the Bonnet House on the beach, from the Black History Month celebration downtown at Broward College to the top of Pier 66, from the Coral Springs Museum of Art to the Coral Ridge Yacht Club, and, of course, to our wheelhouse, the Amaturo Theater at Broward Center.

We're committed to keeping all this going, taking this great American music everywhere we can think of, to young and old, in new venues and familiar favorites. We'll even bring our band to your party, office, or home—just give us a whistle. And for those of you who come to us and buy tickets to our series, we'll be uncompromising on quality and make sure it's a purchase you'll never regret.

We're proud to have stayed on course and on budget through a year of challenging economic headwinds. We're very grateful for the help of dedicated members, staff, board members, subscribers, and friends who made it possible. We hope you'll all stay on board for the next 20 years. Full steam ahead!