Don’t miss Grammy Award-winning quartet säje at 59th Annual Jazz Festival
Grammy Award-winning vocal quartet säje will headline the 59th Annual Kinser Jazz Festival on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. Opening for the group will be the Wyoming Jazz Educators Big Band.
The Tuesday night concert is part of the Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival, which runs from Feb. 9 through 11.
säje
säje is a group of four very talented women: Sara Gazarek, Amanda Taylor, Johnaye Kendrick, and Erin Bentlage. The group’s name comes from the first letter of each member’s first name. The four came together in 2019 in Palm Springs, California, to explore the idea of collaborating as a group. From that meeting came their composition “Desert Song,” which earned a Grammy nomination in the Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals category.
The group debuted at the Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans in January 2020. The ecstatic reception in New Orleans led to a busy run of performances at festivals and major clubs that winter, momentum that ground to an immediate halt with the advent of COVID, per the group’s biography.
In August 2023, säje released its highly anticipated debut album. The album was widely received with critical acclaim and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and No. 4 on the iTunes Jazz Chart. The group, in collaboration with Jacob Collier, won their first Grammy Award in 2024 for their arrangement “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”
In 2025, säje received two more Grammy nominations for the singles “Silent Night” and “Alma,” with “Alma” winning in the Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals category, giving the group its second Grammy win in two years.
“The sky is the limit,” Gazarek said. “We just want the music of säje to reach as many people as possible. Yes, we’re a four-woman musical machine: we have our five-year plan, the second album is already in the works, along with a list of songs and collaborators we’d like to work with, including Maria Schneider, Björk, Vince Mendoza, and Laura Mvula. But we just want to create the music that moves us — without fear or limitations, boundaries or glass ceilings. And hopefully, in the process, we might inspire the next generation of creators to do the same.”
Kinser Focus
“Our focus is to present authentic jazz performances by artists of the highest caliber, such as säje, and to offer a variety of educational experiences for jazz ensembles, their directors, and the public at large,” said Joshua R. Mietz, DMA, festival executive director. “The Casper College Kinser Jazz Festival exists to provide world-class jazz and jazz education to the current and future generations of musicians in the Rocky Mountain Region,” he added.
Through their jazz bands, combos, and vocal groups, the festival provides almost 700 college, senior, and junior high school students and their instructors the opportunity to perform in a noncompetitive environment over three days.
Concert Details
The headliner concert will be held in the John F. Welsh Auditorium at Natrona County High School. All other events will be held in the Music Building on the Casper College campus. All festival daytime events are free and open to the public.
Tickets for the Tuesday night concert, featuring säje and opening act the Wyoming Jazz Educators Big Band, are $30 for adults and $20 for students. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 307-268-2606. A full schedule of events is also available.
The 59th Annual Kinser Jazz Festival is sponsored in part by grants from ARTCORE, Wyoming Jazz Educators, The Hill Music Company, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, BOCES, the Natrona County Joint Powers and Recreation Board, and the Casper College Foundation and Alumni Association.