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Vivacity Music is a Jazz and Swing Band featuring xylophonist HEATHER THORN. They perform throughout Central Florida including Orlando, Winter Park, The Villages, and Tampa.Heather is based in Orlando, FL where she performs with her band and also as a freelance percussionist. She holds a degree in Music Performance with a minor in Theatre from Ithaca College.
In 2019 and 2022, she was featured with Vivacity as the headline act for the "I Love Jazz" International Jazz Festival in Brazil. She was also a guest soloist with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021 for the Holiday Pops concert. Heather has been featured as a guest artist with Michael Andrew and Swingerhead, Carol Stein, the John Depaola quartet and as an opening act for the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
As band leader of Vivacity, she frequently performs for swing dances and at renowned Central Florida venues including Timucua Arts White House and the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts; in 2018 she gave a concert at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
Heather wrote and performs her musical stage show Nostalgia Radio Hour- featuring an original script with classic tunes from the 1920’s- 1950’s, and characters inspired from the Golden Age of Radio. She also leads a jazz quartet at the Sea World Christmas Celebration and subs with the Walt Disney World Orchestra.
She has performed for the Suncoast Jazz Festival and New Smyrna Beach Jazz Festival as well as several arts festivals and community events all over Central Florida. She regularly features jazz luminaries such as Adrian Cunningham, Ed Metz, and Charlie Bertini as guests with the band.
Heather has a private teaching studio of 25 students and is a clinician in several schools along with co-directing the Trinity Prep School percussion program. Additionally, she has given master classes and/or performed at Virginia Tech and the universities of South, Central and North Florida.
Heather has a passionate interest in the history of xylophone and is working with Bill Cahn on a project to digitize and preserve nearly 1500 recordings of xylophone and percussion music from 1898-1929. She has attended the Leigh Howard Stevens Marimba Seminar and was on faculty for the Bob Becker Ragtime Institute in 2014. Her teachers have included Gordon Stout and Bob Becker.
Check out their performances on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@vivacityjazzandswingbandor7077/videos
GENERAL ADMISSION is paid at the door: $30 for Jazz Society and Veterans Memorial Center members, $35 for guests, students are FREE. Bring your own snacks and drinks, adult beverages allowed (the venue does not allow us to sell food or drinks). Tables, chairs and a beautiful view of the river are provided.
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Brevard Veterans Memorial Center, 400 Sykes Creek Pkwy S, Merritt Island, FL 32952-3547, United States
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