Marking three decades of showcasing top piano talents, the HHIPC is bringing 20 teenagers representing six countries to Hilton Head for its Young Artist Competition March 16th-21st.

Louis Armstrong was a global ambassador for music and goodwill. During the Cold War, he toured the world under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, performing in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

In the 1950s and ’60s, Dave Brubeck led some of the most influential U.S. State Department jazz goodwill tours, bringing his quartet to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

During the Cold War, Duke Ellington became one of America’s most powerful cultural ambassadors. Beginning in the 1960s, Ellington and his orchestra toured Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa as part of U.S. State Department goodwill missions.

In 1956, Dizzy Gillespie led one of the Cold War’s most influential cultural missions — the U.S. State Department’s jazz goodwill tour.

During the Cold War, jazz became a form of cultural exchange. As the United States and the Soviet Union competed for influence, jazz traveled the world as a symbol of creativity, freedom, and individuality.

Failure is one of the most important teachers in jazz. Every missed note, every rough gig, every moment that didn’t go as planned carries a lesson—if you’re willing to listen.

I started ColaJazz because I saw both a need and an opportunity. I was performing, teaching, and traveling, but I kept asking myself a simple question: How do we build something that lasts—for musicians, for students, and for the community?

Mentorship has always been at the heart of jazz. You can learn scales, theory, and history in the classroom—and that foundation matters—but the bandstand teaches lessons no book ever can.

Jazz still matters because it teaches us how to listen -- to each other and to the moment we’re living in.