Spring is in the air with the TD Niagara Jazz festival.

This month's edition of Destination Niagara Falls features an exclusive interview with the brilliant and beautiful soul behind the festival, Executive Director, Artistic Producer and Co-Creator: Juliet Dunn.

The TD Niagara Jazz Festival has grown from a weekend series to a massive and growing multi-venue, multi-event that is spearheading a movement towards Jazz in the region. What inspired you to found the festival? 

Juliet:

I came to Niagara in 2002 to become a member of the acting ensemble at Shaw Festival and immediately fell in love with the Niagara Region. Later that year I started to perform with a local jazz band. I've always loved the genre but had never pursued a jazz career, though I had studied jazz while living in France. Over the years I worked with various jazz musicians and started to perform in various wineries and for private and corporate events. In 2006, I met Peter Shea (who is now my husband and my musical partner) and we started to perform together.  We went overseas as a jazz duo but were always happy to return to Niagara each summer. We did 5 winters like that until I began to work as a radio host at Jazz FM 91.1. It was around that time that we thought of doing a weekly jazz series. We called it the Twilight Jazz Series and we started it the same month as my new job at the radio station in 2011.