Scratch Night with Jahnvi Madan
Seattle’s Jazz History
Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Tickets to this event are free, but please pre-register.
Town Hall Seattle is proud to introduce clarinetist and composer Jahnvi Madan as our 2025 Spring Artist-in-Residence! A New England Conservatory graduate who grew up performing around Seattle’s Jazz scene, Jahnvi has performed at festivals including the D.C. Women in Jazz Festival, Seattle’s Westerlies Fest, and the Earshot Jazz Festival – as the youngest composer they have commissioned. Further, Jahnvi was recently named Earshot Jazz Festival’s Northwest Emerging Artist of the Year.
With her Town Hall Residency, she plans to explore Seattle’s Jazz history, uncovering the sounds of Jackson Street in the 1920s-70s, and activating them in a vibrant and engaging way. She says, “I think it could be powerful as a young Jazz musician who grew up here to find archived scores and recordings and then actually arrange that music to be played in the present day, alongside original works, and by local musicians. By doing this, I would be able to bring history off the page, and onto the stage, and activate it sonically in a new context by programming it alongside the music being played on the scene here today.”
“I want to ask the following questions,” she continues. “How can the past continue to sound out to the present? What does it mean to look at this history as a young woman musician on the scene today? I want to explore how this history connects to our broader community. Town Hall is the perfect place to make this happen because of the opportunity to reach a broad and diverse community from a space so physically connected to this history.”
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About the Artist
Named Northwest Emerging Artist of the Year by Earshot Jazz, Jahnvi Madan is an Indian American clarinetist, improviser, composer, and educator currently based in Seattle. As a bandleader, she has performed her original music at several well-known Jazz Festivals and local venues with her quintet. Madan recorded her debut album in November 2024 at Studio Litho in Seattle, which will be released in the Spring of 2025. As a music educator for over 9 years, Madan is committed to inclusivity, and recently planned, ran, and taught at Seattle JazzED’s Femme Jazz Day. As a member of their Anti-Racist Task Force, Madan developed and co-taught a course on Anti-Racism + Jazz in 2020. She is currently working with elementary, middle, and high schoolers through Seattle JazzED and local school districts.
About Town Hall Residencies
Every year, Town Hall selects exceptional local artists and scholars for paid residencies where they engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community. Read more about our residency program here.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.