Volunteer for Reno Jazz Festival + Enjoy 2-Days of Extraordinary Jazz for Free

Support + enjoy great jazz during the 2023 Reno Jazz Festival, April 28 & 29. Be a part of transforming the University campus this April into a hub for jazz, music education and innovation by volunteering
with the Reno Jazz Festival — one of the biggest jazz events of its kind in the US.

All volunteers receive a Festival T-shirt, access to all daytime activities during the Festival, snacks and drinks. Lunch is provided to volunteers who work two consecutive shifts.

We need assistance with the following roles: Door Monitor, Timer / Announcer, Photography Assistant, Stage Guide, and Jazz Fan Pass Usher. Role descriptions are at the bottom of this section.

Sign-ups are for shift times; specific roles will be assigned when volunteers arrive for their shifts.

Volunteers check-in for their shifts at the Joe Crowley Student Union by the Nevada Lounge, First Floor.

The Reno Jazz Festival is one of the biggest jazz events in the world. Since 1962, the Festival has hosted jazz students, instructors, performers and fans to play, listen and learn. The three-day Festival provides a non-competitive forum for students to perform for artist educators and peers, and to learn from jazz masters in clinics, workshops, and concerts. With more than 100 school groups, up to 3,000 participants, and 20 clinicians, performers and artist educators, we continue to strive to ensure that every guest leaves with greater knowledge, appreciation, and love of music and the world of jazz. It is truly the students that make the Festival a vibrant epicenter of jazz each April.

QUESTIONS? Email Jesse Rosenberg at rjfvolunteer@unr.edu.

Volunteer Role Descriptions

Door Monitor

Door Monitors check Festival wristbands to verify that attendees have the proper credentials needed to enter the performance/venue, and ensure attendees follow basic venue rules (for example, food or drink may not be allowed).

Timer / Announcer

Timer/Announcers work with Festival participants (bands, combos, choirs, soloists and directors) and Artist Educators to keep performance/feedback sessions on schedule. Timers collect each group’s set sheet and announcer forms, give the set sheets to the Artist Educators and introduce each group and their performance selection (if the group's director does not wish to).

Stage Guide

Each group (bands, combos, choirs, and solos) will warm up in one room, and perform and receive feedback from an Artist Educator in another room. Stage Guides lead groups from their warm-up room to their performance/feedback room. They ensure the event runs on time by helping groups find their way through the venue.

Photography Assistant

Photography Assistants help the group photographer with orders and photographs.

VIP Jazz Fan Area Usher (EVENINGS ONLY)

Help guide all Jazz Fan Passholders to the correct seating area during Friday and Saturday evening events at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. This includes Friday's headliner concert featuring Marquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited and Saturday's Closing Student Showcase.