Since 1997, over 6000 talented young jazz musicians have passed through our doors. Most of you are bonefied grownups now. While we see a few dozen of you in our travels each year–at festivals and clubs and conferences–we have very little idea what has become of the rest of you.

So we’d like to find out. It’s important to us, and it might just be important to you. After all this time it may be tough to connect with you since your emails have likely changed. We are also reaching out to you parents to try to reconnect with you through them.

Why is connecting with you important to us? Well, we depend on grants and donor support to keep going and giving need-based scholarships. We have never turned away a student in need! We live in a data driven world now, and success is what we measure. Donors are most likely to give if we have reliable data. I’d like to be able to say how madly successful you all are—in music, law, medicine, money management, architecture, teaching….everything! And, of course give the Camp some credit. Many of you have told me it deserves it.

Why is connecting important to you and how can you do it easily? We are planning an internet-based group we will call Litchfield Jazz Camp Alums Network – LJCAN for short—and we’d like you to be members. Like LinkedIn and Alignable, this will give you access to thousands of people you have a lot in common with. You will be able to submit your own profile and update it with ease. You’ll be “connected” with people like yourself. And, connectedness builds trust, whatever field you’re in. IF YOU ARE A MUSCIAN with your profile on LJCAN you can reach other musicians and they can reach you, to trade ideas, plan outings, keep up with trends, and build bands. You will be able to talk privately on LJCAN. If you are in the business world, whether you still play or not, you’ll automatically be linked up with people who are inclined to trust you because you are connected.

I know for a fact many of you are ‘keeping your oar in’ music while you do other work day-to-day. A mother of one camper back in the day recently donated to Jazz Camp and told me her son was now a physician and a member of a jazz trio that played out regularly. Boy was I happy to hear that! Maybe you’d like to do something like that but don’t know where to start. You can form a group to attend events –like Litchfield Jazz Festival–together (groups can often negotiate price and save). You might want to think about investing a few days for a reunion, rehearsal and performance as the Litchfield Jazz Camp Alumni Band. We could tailor special events for you, like workshops by musicians you’d love to learn from. I’m sure you have more ideas and I’d like to hear them.

Think about this and get back to us please. If you are a parent receiving this, please give us a contact for your former camper. And keep an eye out for more details from us in the near future. I hope you are as excited about this idea as I am.

You made connections at LJC. Wouldn’t it be nice to renew them?

Warm regards,