For many established high school jazz bands in the Seattle area, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the usual motivators and outlets that help drive the countless hours of practice – no more public gigs, no more high-profile concerts, no more opportunities to hang out and play with friends.

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“We’re a highly competitive jazz program,” says Jared Sessink, a teacher and music director at Garfield High School in Seattle, which regularly plays and places in top national jazz music competitions. “In the past, it’s been very driven by this idea of, it’s about competitions, it’s about winning whatever festival is next. But that got totally dismantled, and it was gone.

“What we dealt with in the pandemic was: did you eat breakfast, are you still in your pajamas, maybe you should go for walk.”

Which is why Sessink feels especially hopeful for the opportunity to play at Starbucks 25<sup>th</sup> Annual Hot Java Cool Jazz on <a href="https://www.stgpresents.org/calendar/4948/starbucks-25th-annual-hot-java-cool-jazz">March 18 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle</a>. The benefit concert, which returns after a two-year hiatus due to COVID, brings together five of the top high school jazz bands in the state in a non-competitive format in a premier venue. Hot Java has raised more than $1 million for local school jazz music programs since its inception.

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“In some ways, I’m actually grateful that there’s been this disruption, because we’ve lost touch with why we play music,” Sessink says. “Hopefully, we’re coming back with a fresh lens. It’s not just about getting into this event; it’s about caring for your mental health and playing because you love to play and it brings you joy.”

The high schools scheduled to perform this year include Edmonds-Woodway, Garfield, Mount Si, Mountlake Terrace and Roosevelt.

“Since 1995, Starbucks has been proud to celebrate young artists in our hometown,” says June Ashley, manager of Starbucks Community Partnerships. “This concert is a great way to support the young talent in our community, along with Seattle’s rich musical heritage. It truly is a magical night.”

Many students who’ll play at Hot Java expressed sentiments similar to Sessink’s, the Garfield director, about looking inward during the pandemic, or adjusting their focus, or rethinking their relationship with music.

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Clio Vos, a senior at Garfield who plays the alto saxophone, took advantage of newfound time to expand her skills, arranging and composing music and working on digital music projects. Ryan Acheson, a junior at Mountlake Terrace who also plays the alto saxophone, searched for new sounds to inspire him, diving into more modern jazz musicians like Kneebody and Kenny Garrett. Gabriel Espitia, Acheson’s bandmate who plays the drums, used the pandemic to “reset my thinking, and focus on the important things and not waste time.”

Mariel Nolan, a junior at Mount Si who plays the tenor saxophone, has been coming to Hot Java concerts with her father since middle school. During the pandemic, she says, “there wasn’t the gratification of performing and playing with other people. Jazz was so frustrating. We’d have to sit in our rooms, play our parts by ourselves, with a little backing part in your ear.

“Now, we do have these big opportunities, and it’s so great to have that to look forward to, and to be able to perform again, to have something to look forward to together and to push forward together,” she says. “Now, we have a goal in mind of how we want to sound like and where we want to go as a band. I love that, there’s more adrenaline and more push to the music and more that we’re fighting for.”

One student with a unique story is Taiyo Fuwa, a sophomore who plays the saxophone and arrived in the U.S. last summer, specifically to play jazz with the nationally renowned Roosevelt program. He’d grown up near Nagoya, Japan, inspired to choose his instrument after listening to Sonny Rollins and his seminal work, “Saxophone Colossus.” But the nearest jazz program was a 90-minute drive away, a trip he made once a week for two years. His saxophone teacher in Japan was connected to Roosevelt and helped him get placed with a host family in Seattle.

“My dream is to be a musician; I came to Seattle to be a great player,” he says. “I’m usually not so talkative, but when I play jazz, I can show my real feelings. I was a nervous kid, I couldn’t say my feelings to people because I was very shy, but when I grab my instrument, I can show my real feelings and my sound to everybody.”

For his band director at Roosevelt, Scott Brown, who has taught for 38 years and was recently inducted into the Washington Music Educators Hall of Fame, the key word coming out of the pandemic is “joy.”

“Being able to get together at the beginning of this school year, being in the same room, making music together, it’s a joy, it’s a total joy,” he says. “I think you’ll hear a similar thing from most music educators: there’s a renewed sense of joy in making music and being together. The pandemic has reminded us how precious it is, and how fleeting those moments are, and how quickly they can be taken away.”

Collage of young musicians smiling and holding their instruments, two girls with saxaphones and a boy with guitar, with line-art illustration of trumpet player

Musicians from five Seattle area high schools, performing at the annual benefit concert March 18, reflect on how the pandemic’s forced break from performing in public, or even together, helped them refocus on playing for the simple love of music.

Hot Java Cool Jazz: Joy of playing live music again is center stage at fundraising show

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By now it has become an annual tradition, a symbol of the LGBTQ movement and a celebration of Pride. Today, Starbucks raised its Pride Flag high above its headquarters at the Starbucks Support Center, as it has <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2014/for-the-first-time-starbucks-raises-the-pride-flag-atop-its-headquarters/">each June since 2014</a>. At 19 by 38 feet, the rainbow banner is larger than the average Seattle apartment, and among the largest ever made to recognize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion.

“I am so honored to be here today at the rising of our Pride Flag,” said <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/rossann-williams/">Rossann Williams</a>, who leads retail operations in more than 8,000 company-operated stores across the United States. “I'm so proud to work for a company where we are all seen and respected as individuals. This has been woven into the fabric of our culture for almost 50 years. That's who we are.”

Starbucks’ support for the LGBTQ community <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/starbucks-pride-a-long-legacy-of-lgbtq-inclusion/">goes back decades</a>, offering health benefits for same-sex domestic partners of part- and full-time employees since 1998. More than 10 years ago, Starbucks established Workplace Gender Transition Guidelines to support transgender partners and added coverage of gender reassignment surgery to the company’s health benefits in 2013, and <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2018/they-are-lifesaving-starbucks-offers-expanded-benefits-for-trans-people/">expanded benefits in 2018</a>. The company has also spoken out in <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-applauds-supreme-courts-ruling-on-marriage-equality">support of marriage equality</a>, helped create <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/news/safe-place-program-at-starbucks">safe spaces</a> for victims of anti-LGBTQ-related crimes and harassment, and <a href="https://news.starbucks.com/views/starbucks-commitment-to-inclusion">urged equal treatment for the LGBTQ community.</a>

Starbucks partners have been powerful advocates for the LGBTQ community both inside and outside the company from the beginning. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StarbucksPride/">Starbucks Pride Alliance Network</a>, which held its first informal meeting in 1996, now includes thousands of partners in chapters around the world.

Williams underscored the company’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as a core part of its mission and values. “There’s never been a more important time for all of us to stand together however we self-identify. We’re all in this together,” she said.

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<strong><a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/love-meet-the-designer-of-the-starbucks-pride-cup-people-are-buzzing-about/">LOVE: Meet the designer of the Starbucks Pride cup people are buzzing about </a></strong>

Cloudy with a chance of rainbows: Pride Flag hoisted at Starbucks HQ - Starbucks Stories

Cloudy with a chance of rainbows: Pride Flag hoisted at Starbucks HQ

Starbucks raised its Pride Flag high above its headquarters at the Starbucks Support Center, as it has each June since 2014 as a symbol of the LGBTQ movement and a celebration of Pride.

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