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Biography
George Wein (born October 3, 1925) is an American jazz promoter and producer who has been called "the most famous jazz impresario" and "the most important non-player... in jazz history". He is the founder of what is probably the best-known jazz festival in the United States, the Newport Jazz Festival, which is held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. He also co-founded the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger and Theodore Bikel.
Wein was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1925, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Barnet M. Wein, both his parents were ethnically Jewish. A graduate of Newton High School, Wein was a jazz pianist in his youth and while studying at Boston University led a small group which played professionally around the Boston area. After serving in the army during World War II, he graduated from Boston University's College of Liberal Arts in 1950. That same year, he opened a jazz club called Storyville and established a Storyville record label. He also began to teach a course at Boston University on the history of jazz. In 1954 Newport residents Louis and Elaine Lorillard invited him to organize a festival in their hometown of Newport, Rhode Island, with funding to be provided by them; the subsequent festival was the first outdoor jazz festival in the United States and became an annual tradition in Newport. Wein went on to start a number of festivals in other cities, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, and also established the Newport Folk Festival. In the 60s he set up Festival Productions, a company dedicated to promoting large-scale jazz events.
