Inductees Category: Spotlight

Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS) is all about growth. Launched in 1991 as a standalone music festival, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit expanded over the course of subsequent decades to encompass its signature Labor Day extravaganza; more intimate performance showcases presented in Aspen under the JAS Café banner; year-round music education programs; the JAS Academy, which nurtures and empowers the next generation of jazz artists; and, starting in 2025, the Paul JAS Center, a venue designed to host concerts, classes, lectures, recording sessions and more.

Colorado has an incredible wealth of musicians, actors and artists to call our own. Artistic minds require a certain set of conditions in order to unlock their latent potential; so it may come as no surprise that so many of these creators came out of one place: Denver East High School.

Elizabeth Spencer’s “dramatic soprano” was heard on numerous studio recordings, participating in solos, duets, trios, quartets and choruses.

The String Cheese Incident is a band whose innovations encompass both music and the music industry. The group’s sound and style broke barriers even as its approach to marketing and fan service offered a blueprint that untold acts have followed ever since.

Born in Denver on March 28, 1890, Paul Samuel Whiteman was raised by musician parents. His mother Efrida was an opera singer, and his father Wilberforce James served as director of music for Denver Public Schools. As a student at East High School, Whiteman was highly encouraged to learn an instrument and gravitated towards viola.