Trumpeter and ColaJazz Founder Mark Rapp

ColaJazz Festival

Mark Rapp’s resume as a performing artist is impressive enough. He has played jazz clubs and festivals around the world—in Croatia, Brazil, Austria, Switzerland, and the US, including back-to-back appearances at the 2017 and 2018 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. His celebrated 2009 debut release “Token Tales” earned him DownBeat magazine’s recognition as a “Top Emerging Trumpeter,” a sold-out Blue Note appearance, and a spot in the famed Newport Jazz Festival.

Rapp is also the founder of the ColaJazz Foundation, an initiative in his adopted home of Columbia, South Carolina, which hosts a premier annual jazz festival as well as ongoing performances by leading jazz figures, and an outreach program that includes three Summer Camps and jazz-based education sessions at schools throughout the state. In addition to the camps and festival, ColaJazz annual events include South Carolina Public Radio shows, after-school programs, Jazz for Young People concerts, Great Day in Columbia, Live in the Lobby at the Koger Center, monthly dinner and jazz concerts, ColaJazz Crawls, International Jazz Day events, and virtual performances.

“We aim to be the driving beat in jazz education, performance and outreach providing opportunities for all from the musician to the student to the audience,” he says. “We strive to serve our community, create cultural enrichment, and make our capital city a premiere jazz destination in the Southeast.”

Rapp and the ColaJazz Foundation embrace a vision of music as a positive impact on our lives, characterizing jazz as “a symbol of American culture that teaches perseverance, creativity, collaboration, and respect for tradition while embracing innovation.”

Hear more from Mark Rapp at musiclifeandtimes.podbean.com (episode 58) or wherever you get your podcasts.