OutBeat Jazz Festival: Nate Chinen in Conversation with Fred Hersch and Festival Kickoff

The William Way LGBT Community Center presents OutBeat: America's First Queer Jazz Festival. The four-day festival will highlight intersections between sexual orientation, gender identity, and jazz history and culture.

Supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, William Way begins the first day of the festival with Fred Hersch and a kickoff celebration.

5-6 p.m.: The New York Times' Nate Chinen in conversation with pianist and composer Fred Hersch (Free)

6-8 p.m.: Outbeat Kickoff Celebration in the Mark Segal Ballroom of The William Way LGBT Community Center, where guests will enjoy an intimate reception, performances by Philadelphia-based jazz musician Dena Underwood and singer-songwriter Jaye Sanders, and a unique opportunity to mingle with six-time Grammy nominee Fred Hersch—proclaimed by Vanity Fair as "the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade."