Vision Festival

A Lifetime of Achievement

Each year, AFA dedicates an evening to honoring the achievements of one living artist whose music has inspired and influenced the world around him/her. This serves not only to honor our living legends, but because of the information that we disseminate about these artists, it also informs the world of the importance of their achievements. This year, June 13, 2012 AFA honors Joe McPhee for his LifeTime of Achievement.

Emerging Artists

It is important that all the generations are heard together, so while the Vision Festival’s main focus is on creative achievements by mid-career artists and Legends in the music, we focus as well on the exciting contributions by younger emerging artists who hold the future of the music in their hands. Our focus is to present them in a multi-generational context that lends meaning to the contributions of the emerging artist.

Multi-Arts Festival

The Vision Festival since it began has brought all the arts together under the aesthetic of avantjazz and improvisation. By bringing the arts together they inform and inspire. As well we expand audiences across disciplines.

Vision Festival Outreach Programs

Music educators who have participated in AFA's (T.I.M.E.), Teaching Improvised Music Effectively, bring their students to perform their original music at the Vision Festival. These performances give young artists a chance to share their innovative approach to music in the high exposure forum of a major jazz festival. It also exposes them to the leading, world-class professional innovators of our day. On the other hand, these concerts illustrate for our audiences what the future holds in the form of a vibrant scene of talented, young artists. And creating opportunities to showcase these fresh, young bands is a major step in strengthening the bond between past, present, and future.

Vision Festival at Campos Plaza

Seizing an opportunity to give back to the kind of community that fostered some of NY's most innovative artists, two years ago, AFA began a Free Vision Festival Concert at Campos Plaza Housing Development on East 13 Street, NYC. In this way we can make the great music and art available to an underserved population. The event was open and free to the general public. The lovely location for this event is on the playground of a NYC Housing development (with good accoustics). The location insures that those who might otherwise never have access to the Vision Festival, will have a front row seat. An important aspect of the performance included the students of AFA's Music Is Mine program. (AFA funded workshops to prepare for this performance.)