As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, faculty members in Carolina’s music department had to do a new kind of musical improvisation: move the annual, in-person Summer Jazz Workshop for students and amateur musicians entirely online.

Longtime music professor Jim Ketch will retire July 1. Because of Ketch’s career of significant influence on and service to North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper recently conferred Ketch as a member of The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The 43rd annual Carolina Jazz Festival will take place from Thursday, Feb. 20, to Saturday, Feb. 22. Jim Ketch, the department’s director of jazz studies, will lead the festival for the final time.

Bookmark This is a feature that highlights new books by College of Arts & Sciences faculty and alumni, published on the first Friday of every month during the academic year. Featured book: Build! The Power of Hip Hop Diplomacy in a Divided World (Oxford University Press, November 2019) by Mark Katz.