Rochester International Jazz Festival 2024 Headliners Include Samara Joy and Lee Ritenour

CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival 2024 producers Marc Iacona and John Nugent announced the first two headliners for the nine-day 21st Edition Festival, from June 21 to 29, 2024.

Rochester International Jazz Festival 2024
One of the festival headliners is Samara Joy. Photo credit: Meredith Traux.

The 21st edition of the Rochester International Jazz Festival is from June 21 to 29, 2024. The first headliner is the 2023 GRAMMY-winning Artist of the Year Samara Joy, who performed at RIJF in 2022 and 2023 in the Club Pass Series.

23-year-old Samara Joy has a rich, velvety, precociously refined voice, earning appearances on the TODAY Show, The Tonight Show w/ Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert, and CBS Mornings. She further cements her status as perhaps the first Gen Z jazz singing star every day. The New York Times praised the “silky-voiced rising star” for “helping jazz take a youthful turn” while NPR All Things Considered named her a “classic jazz singer from a new generation.” Joy will perform at the 2024 Rochester International Jazz Festival on Friday, June 28 at 8 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre.

Jazz guitar legend, Lee Ritenour makes his debut performance at RIJF on Saturday, June 22, with his band and special guests Randy Brecker and Bill Evans. The concert is at 8 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. During his dazzling five-decade career, Lee Ritenour has taken his music to the outer limits, touching on every genre and occupying every position in the rock ‘n’ roll sphere.

He’s been involved in ’70s fusion, the ’80s pop chart, Brazilian jazz, and the ’90s supergroup, Fourplay. Ritenour’s accolades include 45 albums, 16 GRAMMY nominations, Alumnus of the Year at USC, Los Angeles’ Jazz Society Honoree (2019), plus thousands of sessions with legends such as Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, B.B. King, and Tony Bennett, among others.

Tickets for both shows go on sale this Friday, December 8th at 10 a.m. EST.

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