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February 21, 2024 24 mins
Katy Coy is the CEO of the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus. A committed leader with deep experience in arts administration, Coy is perfectly positioned to champion Jazz Arts Group’s mission to advance and celebrate the art of jazz through performance and education.
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(00:00):
Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How do they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to

(00:21):
another iHeartMedia Columbus podcast. This iscalled CEOs you should Know. I'm your
host boxer, pretty excited whenever weget the chance to talk the world of
arts, especially when we put thatlocal flavor to it. I think you're
really gonna love this episode that wehave this week. You ever hear of
Jazz Arts Group of Columbus. Theacronym is JAG. It's America's premiere not

(00:43):
for profit arts organization that's dedicated toproducing, performing, and promoting jazz.
Now, look, I can readthat for you, but there's no one
better to articulate what they do andat the head of this organization than Katie
Coy, who got what I thinksome would consider a dream job. She's
the CEO of Jazz Arts Group ofColumbus and she's with us and this week's

(01:07):
guest on CEOs you should know,Katie. Congratulations first of all on this
new gig. It was announced whatlast fall, last summer? Yeah,
in the fall, ok more monthsago. And as you said, it
is a dream job. I'm sohappy to be here. I'm so glad
to hear that. Well, look, I'm excited about hearing your background.
I write a little bit about whatJAG is, but would you mind going

(01:29):
in a little bit further on whatJAG does. Sure? So, the
Jazz Arts Group is a very distinctiveorganization. It's an umbrella organization, and
underneath it we have the Columbus JazzOrchestra, fifty years strong, playing world
class jazz music right here in Columbus. We have a suite of education programs
that reach us thousands of students ayear, and we also bring premiere jazz

(01:52):
artists from all over the country toColumbus to perform for folks here. I
always like to ask, Katie,are you from here? Did you grow
up somewhere else? Tell us aboutyour background growing up? Okay, so
this is a fun story. I'mfrom the Detroit area. Originally, I
grew up in the Detroit suburbs andafter school, I moved to Chicago and

(02:13):
I met a Buckeye. You meta buck guy. I met a Buckeye
and fell in love married that buckeyein Chicago, But in short order we
came to Columbus. We were herefor about eight or nine years, and
then we moved to Texas for ajob opportunity, so we were there for
a little while, but our heartswere here. So we were really glad
when everything lined up and we wereable to come home. Katie, we

(02:35):
have something already in common besides,of course, our love for jazz,
and that is we married buck guys. Okay, there you go. See
we're all We're all from here now, yeah, right, right exactly.
So growing up was was arts inyour blood? Were you in band?
Were you Did you participate in thatkind of few? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, so I am. Mystory is similar to a lot of stories.

(03:00):
I came to the arts through myeducation and through TV. I'm not
from an arts family, but Iloved public television and I loved watching arts
performances on public television, and soI remember being very young and seeing you
know, symphonies and plays and thingslike that on public television for the first
time. So then when I gotyou know, I think middle school was

(03:23):
the first time that I did somethingartistic and I found my way to the
theater. The theater is actually howI came up through the arts. Wow.
And I performed in produce. Idid any job in the theater that
you that they would let me dofor years and years and years. I
have two theater degrees theater arts managementdegrees. But I was a theater rat

(03:44):
for a very long time. Andthen along the line back to that Buckeye,
my husband is a musician, andOkay, through him, I sort
of started to understand what was underthe hood of music and producing and performing
and working in music organizations, andso over time I started working for symphonies
and music production companies, and sothat's where I've been for a number of

(04:06):
years now. I just I lovethe story you had me at when you
were a little girl and you wouldsee the performances on public television and that's
when the bug you felt looking backnow bit you. Yeah. Absolutely,
And I think it's an interesting storybecause it really bakes in something we talk
about a lot now, which isaccess. My family didn't go to a

(04:28):
lot of performing arts events that wasn'tyou know. We were a sports family,
by the way, the Lions arein the playoffs and my family back
home or just beside themselves as amI I have to mention that I was
waiting. I was waiting for it. So that was our sort of family
fun, you know. Yeah.But I was always drawn to the arts.
I mean I remember even going toCedar Point as a child. I

(04:50):
was just thinking about this the otherday. Yeah, and everybody was running
off to the roller coasters and Iwas headed to those shows. You know,
I would go. I would wantto go sit and watch the show
people sing and dance. So I'vealways been attracted to live performance. It's
just something in my blood. There'snothing like watching artists sing and play instruments
and have sort of this art comeout of them whole. Yeah, it's

(05:12):
just magic. I can't get enoughto this day. I can't get enough.
So Katie Coy is with us.She's this week's guest on CEO's You
Should Know and I heard Media Columbuspodcast. She's the CEO of the Jazz
Arts Group of Columbus. Every oncein a while during this conversation, you'll
hear us say JAG and that's justan acronym, that's just short for that.
Katie. Could we do a deepdive on the first job you had,

(05:34):
even if it was volunteer, Howhow you got into the business?
Hmmm? It high school? Wasit college? Elementary? You know,
we can talk about let's talk aboutcollege, Okay. I worked in the
box office. Okay. That wasmy first sort of arts job, was
working in the box office of thetheater at the university. So I have,

(05:57):
you know, worked my way upfrom them, from the frontline.
Would this have been Chicago? ActuallyI went to Western Michigan University of Okay,
Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. So Iworked in the box office there,
and I worked on promotion. Ihung posters, house managed, you know,
I was the person sort of gettingeverybody in and out of the theater
every night. So that was sortof not only my first taste of arts

(06:19):
management as a more official thing,but also my first job in the arts.
So eventually, and you talked aboutwhen you moved to Texas, I'm
kind of skipping around here. Wereyou were you also in some type of
you know, arts field. Okay, what did you do there? So
when I was in Texas. Iran the Valley Symphony Orchestra. I was

(06:41):
the executive director there. McCallen Texas, down on the border between Texas and
Mexico, has a full symphony orchestraperforming at a world class performing arts center,
the McCallen Performing Arts Center, AndI had the great fortune of running
that organization for five years. That'sincredible. And I was just going to
ask you about terrain about regions.You know, you grew up in Michigan,

(07:02):
Detroit, you know, we're inChicago, you're here now, but
you are also in Texas. Isis it all the same when you're going
to these different areas as far asthe passion? Is it different? Yeah,
that's a great question. So onethe first thing I'll say is that
the arts field is really national andinternational. You know, people who work

(07:26):
in the arts work all over thecountry. So in some cases, you
know, I'd be down in Texasand colleagues from Ohio would come to play
maybe with me, but maybe withanother organization, or colleagues from Texas would
find themselves in the Midwest, becauseyou know, professional artists are working everywhere.
Yeah, So I think that's kindof what's cool about bopping around is
that the network really is national andvery strong. I mean even today,

(07:48):
I have colleagues probably in every stateand in many countries too, because that's
just how the arts sort of function. It's a small world. It's a
very broad world. When you workin the arts, you work with all
all kinds of people. People whospeak different languages, come from different backgrounds,
have different paths to the arts.I mean, some people I told
my story, but you know there'ssome people who've been playing their instruments since

(08:09):
they were three and it's been theirwhole life, you know. So so
that's that's one thing that is thesame, I guess. Yeah, Texas
in particular, I mean I've neverlived that far from the Midwest. It's
away, long ways away. Texasis a big place, and I lived
all the way to the bottom.Yeah, so it's a long way away.

(08:31):
And what was beautiful to me aboutTexas is that I had so much
exposure to artistic disciplines that I probablyotherwise would not have encountered so up close,
like Madiaci music, the Madiaci music, and the Mariiaci performers in McCall
and Texas are literally world class Imean, there are documentaries, they've been
to the White House. I mean, it's just they're amazing, amazing,

(08:52):
amazing musicians, folk lo dico dancers, beautiful you know dancing. It's sort
of a cross between ballet and polkaand sort of you know, nothing quite
like it in the Midwest certainly,and they have all these beautiful historic costumes
that go with it. So it'sit was really beautiful to me to live
in an environment that was so artsrich and also something that I at the

(09:15):
outset was so unfamiliar with. Yeah, yeah, Katie, eventually you found
yourself from there, from Texas backto Ohio, is that right? Tell
us about that. Yeah, So, you know, I think Texas was
so beautiful and lovely. We werethere for seven yearska, which you know,
there's a lot that happened in theworld during that time, COVID,
you know, just that long awayfrom your families. So when the opportunity

(09:39):
at JAG crossed my path, youknow, I thought to myself, my
goodness, if I could you know, lend my chops and come to the
table at an organization that was soremarkable and also come back home, I
think that's something worth exploring. Soabsolutely, Yeah, if you don't mind,
Katie, could we back up asecon because you did something that was
pretty in a and we saw someinnovation during COVID, and many many organizations

(10:07):
struggled to figure out ways during COVID. How how do we keep afloat?
How do we make money? Whereis our traditional revenue stream? How's that
going to be replaced? Right now? Otherwise we're not going to survive.
And you did something in regards tostreaming, right yep. During COVID,
of course we couldn't perform live.It wasn't safe. And McCallan in particular,

(10:30):
if you maybe remember or go backin the press, was hit very
hard by COVID in the first year. So we said, well, we
have to not abandon the community.I mean, music is something that people
have historically looked to drawn on intimes of deep trouble. Agreed, Yeah,
So we felt that it was moreimportant than ever to not stop performing.

(10:54):
And of course musicians, in particular, their response to hardship, their
response to strife, their response tolove, to the need of the community,
of course is to play, isto perform, is to give that
gift. So so we devised invery short order, a series of concerts
that we produced in an empty performingarts center. We brought in you know,

(11:18):
as time went on, we broughtin some select guests and sort of
used that enormous performing arts center tobring people in because we could keep them
distant. But you know, theidea was that we were going to be
safe, but we were also goingto play. And we partnered with a
amazing filming firm who came in andwas very gracious and generous with us in
order to make it possible for usto do it, and we produced you

(11:41):
know, thirty minute concerts. Wesocially distanced, We put all the protocol
in place, and we worked reallyhard to get them both on Facebook and
on television. Downing Kittie. Whatwas the response, Oh, it was
tremendous. That season was fully fundedby the community, So we did in
charge for anything because we had sponsorsand donors in a real generous community come

(12:03):
up alongside us and make it possible. You know, over television, we
reached thousands and thousands more people thanwe could have in the concert hall alone.
So although it was not what anybodywanted or anticipated, it's not usually
how we deliver music there were someserious upsides in terms of being really able
to support the entire community during thattime. Incredible. So Katie, fast

(12:24):
forward here you are with JAG.Now, what are some of the things
you learn from that time and maybesome practices that you're using today. Do
you still post maybe snippets of performanceson social what do you do? Yeah?
So JAG is actually I think aheadof the curve in this. We
have something called jag TV. Ifyou go online and you go to jag

(12:48):
dot tv, we have a websitewhere you can stream all of our Cgo
performances, our Community Jazz Series,which is a series of concerts that features
local musicians at Long Store Eat studiosdowntown, as well as a number of
education concerts. We stream them allonline free of charge after the events.
It also features our Jazz at theLincoln series, which is the series I

(13:11):
talked about where we bring nationally knownacts to Columbus. Yeah. So it's
really tremendous. It gets thousands andthousands of hits every month, and it's
a way for people who can't forwhatever reason, if there's a barrier to
that concert hall experience, they cango online, queue up the performance,
hopefully you know, maybe their househas an amazing sound system, or they

(13:31):
want to be on their sectional.You know, there's that best of things
that we got during COVID, whichis you can really have an intimate,
lovely experience without leaving your house,especially in winter and Ohio. True.
Yeah, it's and it provides thatopportunity for people who maybe haven't checked us
out yet or have another reason thatthey can't make it to the concert hall.

(13:54):
So I'm very proud of that.I was just gonna say, Katie,
what a fantastic way to reach newpeople that otherwise wouldn't have thought her
or purchased a ticket, and maybethat would inspire these new people to attend
in person down the road. Yeah, exactly right. Arts organizations are finding
that, you know, they're findingthat all that streaming activity that we did

(14:15):
during COVID, all of that innovationthat we did around delivery, there are
several arts organizations that have had greatsuccess turning that into for lack of a
better word, a pipeline to theconcert hall. So now instead of more
traditional marketing methods of like buy aticket, try us out, yeah,
and kind of pull back the curtainand say hey, check us out online.
If you like what you see,you will not believe how it feels

(14:37):
to be in this hall. KatieCoy's with us. She's this week's guest
on CEOs. You should know she'sthe CEO of the Jazz Arts Group of
Columbus, So you you get thegig Katie. At JAG, I've always
I asked this of all the CEOs, did you have something to mind?
Everyone's got ideas of how they canmake things better? Or what were some

(14:58):
of your goals or intentions when youwhen you took the job or when you
were, you know, campaigning forit. Yeah. So I think one
of the most exciting things about JAGis how distinctive it is. Uh,
there are not that many organizations ofour sise and scope dedicated to jazz,
which is the original American art form. So I think that, you know,

(15:20):
I will have left the legacy Iwanted to leave at JAG is if
it becomes sort of a national jewelin the crown of jazz and the arts.
You know, it's it's there arenot that many organizations out there doing
what we do, especially when itcomes to jazz pedagogy, jazz education,
the way our teaching artists and oureducators go into schools and you know,
teach jazz. But the cool thingabout jazz is jazz is in music,

(15:43):
Jazz is life. Jazz is aboutimprovisation, collaboration, working together, working
with what you've got. You know, there's all these moral threads that that
really make it about more than themusic. That's incredible. Jazz isn't music,
Jazz is life. I love that, you know, you touched on

(16:06):
it a little bit, and I'mcurious. It's it's not just JAG isn't
just about attending a performance. Itsounds like you very much get out in
the community quite a bit. Absolutely. Yeah. You know. In fact,
when I first came to JAG,one of the first things we had
to do as a team. Ihave a nine member team. They're all
fantastic, every single one of themas a musician as well as an administrator

(16:29):
or an educator, and we hadto rally around and say, Okay,
when can we all be in thesame room together, because so much of
our work is hitting the pavement,it's being in schools, it's being in
the theaters, it's being out youknow, talking about JAG. So I'm
really proud of the way that thisteam is just completely mobilized in the community.
By the way, how how manyperformers are part of JAG. Yeah,

(16:52):
so we have a full orchestra ofanywhere from sixteen to twenty members,
which you know, you think abouta classical symphony, classical orchestra that's like
seventy people. So jazz orchestra ismuch smaller. It's about sixteen to twenty
people, but the sounds a lotbigger. It's all brass and you know,
drums and piano, organ So that'sthe orchestra. And then we have

(17:15):
a number of educators that are outin the schools, I'd say anywhere from
twenty to twenty five who work withus on an ongoing basis. And then
about as many musicians, you know, we have, like I said,
musicians at Long Street Studios, weperform at the Lincoln and we also perform
you know for corporations out at theairport and the malls, and you know,

(17:37):
JAG musicians are all over the place, you know, performing and just
bringing jazz to the community. Katie, could we go back to JAG and
it's humble beginnings started with the earlyseventies. I think you touched at beginning
this podcast, you're celebrating what overfifty years. Yes, that's right.
Last year was our fiftieth anniversary.Very exciting and it was it started Ray

(18:02):
you Banks is our founder. He'sstill around, very fun guy. I
got to meet him at our fiftiethanniversary celebration the week I started. Yeah,
and it actually started out at CapitolUniversity, which has an amazing music
program and an amazing jazz program.And it started there and sort of,
you know, as it grew,grew audience members, the footprint grew,
we've become this standalone education and performanceorganization. But it's a it's a long

(18:27):
history. A ton of amazing musicianshave both been in the c JO and
come through town and played with us, and it's it's been a tremendous story.
I know. There. You know, when I think of specifically your
music, which I'm a huge fanof, and symphony Columbus Symphony Orchestra too,
but but specifically with JAG, andI think of jazz, and I

(18:48):
think of what's being used in moviesoundtracks, and just out of curiosity,
Katie, do you think and maybeI'm missing something, but you think back
to the old movies and the animatedyou know, shows that we saw,
especially with Disney, and a lotof jazz music was used. Will we
see that again? Will the musicthat you're over overseeing take place again in

(19:11):
some of those movie soundtracks? Yeah? I think so. I think you're
onto something. You know, I'vemet a lot of people since I've focused
more on jazz in the last sixto eight months who have come to jazz
through La La Land, which isa relatively recent film that has a really
dynamic, jazzy original score, andso I think I think that it is
still very much alive and well,quote unquote there's some other movies I could

(19:34):
come up with. Two Birdman isone of all. Oh, okay,
yeah, yeah, correct me ifI'm wrong, Katie. Jazz. There's
some kind of a renaissance going outwith jazz right now, isn't there?
Absolutely absolutely, I think, youknow, the more that I have focused
on jazz over the last six toeight months, I've heard from folks who
have come to jazz through more contemporarymeans. Many folks I've talked to have

(19:56):
actually come to it through the movieLa La Land, which has a really
contemporary, dynamic jazzy original score.And I recently read an article that talked
about how jazz is experiencing a renaissancewith young people, with young people who
want to go out, who wantto dress up, who want to hear
you know, this sort of realtime creation of music, you know that's

(20:19):
that's played on real instruments and hasthis sort of I don't want to say
classical feel, but certainly authentic.So yeah, I think it's because jazz
music is very high energy. Itstarted as dance music, so I think
people are attracted to that, andthey're attracted to the vibe you know,
when you when you go listen tojazz music, it's about dressing up,

(20:41):
going to a cool club, youknow, going where everybody says to go,
knows to go. So it's awhole experience of people really interesting.
Katie. I don't know about you, but I always felt like maybe I
was born in the wrong time periodbecause I could listen to jazz and big
band and swing all day. Itjust it just automatic, least for me,
puts me in a great move.Yeah, yeah, that's jazz.

(21:03):
Musicians call that. It's swinging.That's what they say. The swing is
strong or I'm not sure if I'msaying it exactly right because I'm not a
jazz musician. But you know,the swing is hot, you know,
that's what they'll say to know,you know, to convey that that it's
getting inside you. Yeah, it'smaking you move and it's making you feel
and that's it's swinging Katie. Forthose that don't know, with JAG,
how many shows do you put onannually and is there a concert type of

(21:27):
season for JAG? Yeah, absolutelyso. The CJO performs five times a
year at the Southern Theater, whichis downtown on the Western Hotel. It's
beautiful, it's so gorgeous. Yes, it's just Columbus has a lot of
amazing theaters. By the way,we have so many spaces, historic spaces
that I just think that that's oneof the things that makes Columbus distinctive in

(21:48):
the arts. So five concerts isto the Southern with the CJO. We
have four concerts every year in ourJazz at the Lincoln series at the Lincoln
Theater, another beautiful theater in thistown. And then we also have a
number of community jazz concerts that happenmostly at the Long Street Studios but across
town and sometimes we're out, youknow, at the Zoo. We do

(22:11):
the Zoo in the summertime. Wedo some other venues in the summertime,
so there's always something going on.It's rare that there's a week that we're
not performing somewhere. That's fantastic.As we wrap up here, Katie.
For those that would love to supportor you get the schedule, where's a
good place to go. Yeah,Well, Jazzartsgroup dot org is our website.
You can buy tickets, you canjoin the mailing list, you can

(22:32):
get linked to our socials from there. We are on Facebook and Instagram and
those are really great too because theyagain pull back that curtain, you know.
We try to put content up therethat lets people know what they're in
for when they start to come aroundto JAG events. So yeah, definitely
check out the website. We haveconcerts through the spring this year and then
again we'll have some this summer andlook for opportunities to support, you know,

(22:53):
whether that's buying a ticket of courseis the easiest and most fun way
to support because you get in aperformance out of it. But we're always
looking for volunteers, people to comealongside us and support our education programs,
either with donations or you know,connections or what have you. So the
website is a great place to startand I'm always looking to meet new friends

(23:15):
on behalf of Jack. That's fantastic. Hey, wrapping up, is there
anything in the near future or ahead that you want to I guess talk
about a little bit. Yeah,of course. So our next concert is
the second week of February, NatKing Cole and Friends. So it's a
whole concert of Nat King Cole musicand some other fun surprises that Byron is

(23:37):
planning. Byron Stripling is our artisticdirector. He is an amazing musician and
showman singer. He's great and he'llbe fronting that concert. Tickets are on
sale now and we're just really excitedto welcome everybody. And the other concert
I'll mention is coming up Jazz atthe Lincoln on February twentieth. We're welcoming
Helen Song to town. He isan amazing jazz pianist who also performs with

(24:02):
a small string combo. So it'sa little bit of like a classical jazz
fusion that you don't see every day. So we're very excited for that,
Katie Coy, such a pleasure tofinally meet you and be our guest this
week on CEOs you Should Know.Katie Coy. Of course, this is
the CEO of the Jazz Arts Groupof Columbus, short for and JAG.
Thanks for your time, Katie,Thank you so much for having me.
CEOs You Should Know is hosted andproduced by Brandon Boxer, a production of iHeartMedia Columbus
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