Jazz Walnut Creek: The Story So Far

In 2012, Daniel Levenstein, then the Director of Chamber Music San Francisco, enabled the founding of Jazz at the Lesher by providing the Diablo Regional Arts Association with the professional services it needed for the series. He provided his expertise as a gesture of appreciation to DRAA for its steady support of CMSF’s performances at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

The jazz series, always scheduled in August, was an immediate hit, selling out performance after performance, mostly on subscription.  Aided and abetted by artistic advisor Tom Donahoe, the jazz series continued strong as a DRAA presentation until interrupted by the COVID shut-down in 2020.

Now in 2025, Levenstein has undertaken to revive the series, with a couple of minor tweaks. 

• The first tweak is the name: in order to distinguish it from the LCA’s own presentations, it has been renamed Jazz Walnut Creek.
• The other tweak – a temporary one – is that the August 2025 performances will take place in the 133-seat Vukasin theatre, because the Lesher and the Hofmann Theatres will be undergoing renovation during that perioed.  Beginning in 2026, Jazz Walnut Creek will move to the 297-seat Margaret Lesher Theatre.

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This jazz series was revived in the firm belief that true artistic excellence inspires everybody concerned: artists, audiences, administrators and supporters.

We hope our series will attract a constituency who we can serve for many years to come. Long may it swing!

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For reference, below are the artists presented from 2012 to 2019:

2012: Arturo Sandoval, Jane Monheit, John Pizzarelli, Wycliffe Gordon

2013: Eliane Elias, Dick Hyman, Stacy Kent, Cyrus Chestnut with Terrell Stafford and Joel Frahm

2014: Clayton Brothers, John Pizzarelli, Karrin Allyson, Roy Hargrove

2015: Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Dick Hyman, Cyrus Chestnut with Warren Wolf, Martin Taylor and Bucky Pizzarelli

2016: Geri Allen, Warren Vaché with Houston Person, Arturo Sandoval, Mark O’Connor

2017: Terrell Stafford, Cyrille Aimee, Monty Alexander,  Warren Wolf with Tia Fuller

2018: Bria Skonberg, Marcus Roberts, Eliane Elias, Gerald Clayton, Sarah McKenzie

2019: Emmet Cohen with Veronica Swift, Anat Cohen, Monty Alexander