After two years of renovations and a $9 million investment, the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center celebrated its grand opening this morning.

Photo by Stephen Maloney

George Wein, the founder of the Jazz and Heritage Festival, sat next to Jazz Fest producer Quint Davis, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and an assortment of public and civic leaders in the center’s multi-use performance space during the opening ceremonies.

“This is one of the finest buildings of its kind now in America,” Landrieu said. “Which is another message that we in New Orleans are actually starting to set the pace for the nation.”

In addition to the performance hall, the center features seven classrooms dedicated to individual elements of music: piano, strings, bass, percussion, brass, vocals, and reeds.

“We’re thrilled to have a permanent home for our Heritage School of Music in the beautiful center that will house many of the foundation’s wonderful existing programs as well as helping us to develop new programs to serve the community,” Jazz & Heritage Foundation executive director Don Marshall said.

Demetric Mercadel, president of the Foundation’s board of directors, said the center will go a long way to preserve and protect the musical legacy of New Orleans in the Treme neighborhood, which has become the place most closely associated with New Orleans music and culture.

“It’s an honor and a privilege for this foundation to make this kind of commitment to Treme and to New Orleans,” she said.

George Wein at the opening ceremony. Photo by Stephen Maloney

While $3 million of funding came from donations from George and the late Joyce Wein, the Goldring Family Foundation, ArtPlace, the Louis Prima and Gia Maione Prima Foundation, the Ella West Freeman Foundation, the Helis Foundation, and the State of Louisiana, Mercadel said most funding came directly from music fans through proceeds from Jazz Fest.

“More than $6 million is coming from the Jazz & Heritage Foundation,” she said. “These are truly Jazz Fest dollars at work. So remember, if you attend Jazz Fest, every dime you spend there comes back, and we can do things like this.”

Landrieu said the center will serve as a cocoon to protect and nurture the God-given talents within the young people of New Orleans, and he is excited to see what sparks of talent will be nurtured at the center in the coming years.

“It’s really simple: if you plant good seeds, you’re going to grow good stuff,” he said. “If you nurture, and you bring people together, and you make sure that people celebrate the joy of life, you’re going to produce good stuff, and that’s what you’re going to do here.”