.Turn The Key: San Jose Jazz Speakeasy-Style Gala At SV Capital Club To Benefit Music Education

Like many great artistic movements, jazz was born out of rebellion—growing, in some cases quite literally, from an underground. Speakeasies, those often subterranean and always illicit watering holes, which sprung up all over America during prohibition served as the launch pad for America’s indigenous music.
And so it makes sense that San Jose Jazz would choose to give its upcoming fundraiser gala a speakeasy theme—even if the event is going to be held high above ground on the 17th floor of the Knight Ridder building.
The event, dubbed “Turn The Key,” will be hosted by the Silicon Valley Capital Club, which every year holds a charity gala to support a local non-profit organization. This year, the Capital Club has selected San Jose Jazz.
According to Teresa Alvarado, vice chair of San Jose Jazz, the Capital Club selected her organization “in recognition of their long-standing commitment to music performance and music education in the community.”
Indeed, this year marks 25th anniversary of the organization’s celebrated summer music festival. “We were excited to selected this year,” Alvarado says.
Tickets to the gala aren’t cheap—starting at $250 and going all the way up to $2,500—but Alvarado says it’s for a good cause. The gala will help raise money to support San Jose Jazz’s educational efforts—including the High School Jazz All Stars, Summer Jazz Camp and Progressions, “a K-12 youth development program that uses music to connect with low-income, at-risk students, challenges them with a rigorous music education program.”

In an attempt to break the mold of a typical gala event, Turn the Key is being run as a speakeasy, Alvarado says. There will be casino gaming, specialty cocktails, live musical performances from the likes of Tumbledown House, food stations instead of a sit-down style dinner, and even a make shift jail—a winking tribute to the Prohibition era.

There will also be great auction items, Alvarado says, including Giants tickets, a wine refrigerator stuffed with fine wines, a whiskey bar stocked with 20 premium whiskeys and bar stools, a private party for 50 at the Capital Club, and a week-long beach-front vacation on the French Riviera.
Returning to the reason for the occasion, Alvarado emphasizes the importance of music education in public schools.
“It teaches the kids through performance, how to be in front of a crowd and develop their self confidence,” she says, adding that music is also been proven to be a critical element in a fuller, richer education.
“I think it’s become more and more recognized, especially in Silicon Valley, that music education helps kids achieve,” Alvarado says. “It reinforces all the STEM learning (science, technology, engineering and math). In fact, now we’re seeing educators referring to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math).”
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

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