Diehl To Succeed Charlap as Jazz in July’s Artistic Director

By DownBeat I Jul. 11, 2023

“Jazz in July is all about creating a communal space,” Diehl said.
(Photo: Courtesy Mack Avenue)

The 92nd Street Y, New York has named pianist/composer Aaron Diehl as the new artistic director of the Jazz in July festival, beginning in the summer of 2024. Diehl, an American Pianists Association’s 2011 Cole Porter Fellow, has worked with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Heath and Cécile McLorin Salvant, performed at such celebrated venues as the Village Vanguard, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Newport Jazz Festival, and released three albums on Mack Avenue.

Bill Charlap, the festival’s artistic director since 2005, announced earlier this year that he was stepping down at the end of this summer’s festival, and was instrumental in choosing Diehl as his successor. Good friends and collaborators, the two performed together at the 2017 NEA Jazz Masters concert honoring Jazz in July’s founding artistic director, Dick Hyman, who led the festival for 20 years from its first season in 1985, as well as at three previous 92NY Jazz in July concerts. Charlap will pass the baton to Diehl on July 20, when the two perform at this year’s festival in a concert that also includes 2023 American Pianists Award winner Isaiah J. Thompson and 2021 BMI Foundation’s Future Jazz Master Award winner Caelan Cardello.

“Aaron Diehl has the artistry and vision to bring Jazz in July into a brilliant new era,” Charlap said.

“I’m deeply honored to be the next artistic director of Jazz in July at 92NY, and to build off of the extraordinary blueprint that both Dick Hyman and Bill Charlap have developed over the decades,” Diehl said. “Working off of these foundational visions, I intend to continue to expand the collaborative possibilities of this series, with an intimate, reflective and nuanced experience around each concert. To me, Jazz in July is all about creating a communal space where musicians and concertgoers can come together to experiment with artistic honesty and vulnerability, drawing open-minded, open-hearted audiences into their worlds and taking them on a journey.”

In September, Diehl will release of his recording of Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite featuring the Knights Orchestra. DB