A Stage for the Next Generation
When Steven Hartlen talks about music, it’s with the conviction of someone who has seen first-hand how a single performance can change a young musician’s life.
As the Director of the Atlantic Festivals of Music, Steve has spent years nurturing student musicians from across the region. But in 2025, alongside Halifax Jazz Festival’s Artistic Director, Andrew Jackson, he helped create something special — the Artie Irwin Award for Excellence in Jazz — named in honour of the late musician, long time HJF board member and jazz advocate Artie Irwin.
Steve Hartlen, Director of Atlantic Festivals of Music
The award does more than recognize outstanding musicianship. It gives one high-school jazz band the chance to step onto a professional stage at Halifax Jazz Festival’s free Sunday Big Band show — a moment that, for many students, becomes the spark that ignites a lifelong passion.
“For a young musician, to have that type of performance opportunity that early in their career can really inspire them to go places,” Steven says.
“Most musicians can point to those pivotal moments — and I believe there’s a strong possibility that providing that experience for those kids could be one of those pivotal moments.”
Standing under the summer sun, surrounded by their peers, with the hum of the waterfront crowd, and an audience of friends and family, these students feel the thrill of real musicianship: the stage lights, the applause, the sense that their art matters.
Family enjoying the Free Sunday afternoon main stage programming
That’s the dream Halifax Jazz Festival helps to build — one performance, one opportunity, one young artist at a time.
Steve believes this work is more important than ever.
“Music education in the province needs as much support as it can get — even more so jazz education. The lack of schools that offer jazz band is concerning,” he explains. “As a student or a teacher, a good jazz element in your program can really drive it — because kids love it! It’s practical. You’re more likely to use those skills as a gigging musician than what you’d learn in concert band.”
Through partnerships like this, Halifax Jazz Festival strengthens the bridge between classrooms and stages — ensuring that music education isn’t just about notes and scales, but about real experiences that inspire confidence, creativity, and community.
“History judges its society by the way it treats its artists,” Steven adds. “Supporting cultural content like the Halifax Jazz Festival is critical for our province — not just for the art itself, but for the creativity and the economic activity it generates. It’s a critical piece of the arts infrastructure in Nova Scotia.”
For the students stepping onto that stage — and for the audiences, teachers and families cheering them on — that’s what Building the Dream is all about: helping the next generation see what’s possible when a community invests in its artists.
💚 Together, we can keep the music playing for those who dream of taking the stage.