Wendy Oxenhorn

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Wendy Oxenhorn (* in Brooklyn ) is an American social activist and jazz and blues promoter.

She has been Executive Director and Vice Chairman of the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) in New York City since 2000 . Thanks to her commitment, for example, to the organization of charity events, the amount of donations could be increased significantly and the original local New York organization (founded in 1989 by Billy Taylor ) expanded nationwide in the USA.

Wendy Oxenhorn grew up in Dobbs Ferry in Westchester County . She started out as a dancer, attended the School of American Ballet at the age of 14, and went to the New York City Ballet at the age of 17 with a knee injury . In 1990 she was one of the co-founders of Street News (the prototype of the street newspapers ) in New York and built up the organization behind it through high-media campaigns as a fundraiser. In 1994, she founded the Children of Substance charity for teenage girls whose parents have drug problems. The program was supported by US school authorities. The JFA was particularly active in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina under her leadership . In 2005 she founded the Agnes Varis Jazz in the Schools Program , which brought jazz and blues to schools through retired musicians who received regular income opportunities in their profession.

In 2016 she received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship . She is on the council of the Montreux Jazz Festival . She received awards from Jazz at Lincoln Center and the 2008 Jazz Journalists Association .

She herself plays the blues on the harmonica. She is divorced and has two daughters.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wendy Oxenhorn on Founding the Street Paper Movement , Street Sense, May 11, 2016
  2. ↑ See list of JJA Awards winners of the 2000s
personal data
SURNAME Oxenhorn, Wendy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American social activist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn