The Panama Jazz Festival was founded in September 2003 by pianist and grammy winner Danilo Pérez. History Perez founded the festival with the intent to improve people's lives through the shared experience of music. With almost 20 years, the Panama Jazz Festival has become a cultural tourism attraction with the visit of more than 500,000 people from different latitudes. Currently, the event is sustainable thanks to the work of Patricia Zárate de Pérez, Executive Director of the festival who leads a team of 70 coordinators, 500 volunteers, 300 national and international musicians, and about 200 collaborators from all sectors of Panama. , adding more than 1,000 people who work hard to carry out the event. The festival provides a week of master classes by musicians from Berklee College of Music, Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and the New England Conservatory. Other institutions that have participated in the festival include the Golandsky Institute, Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Sienna Jazz Foundation, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, New York Jazz Academy, and the Paris Conservatory. Musicians who have attended the festival include Kenny Barron, Rubén Blades, Terri Lyne Carrington, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette, Nnenna Freelon, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Jordan, Joe Lovano, Ellis Marsalis Jr., John Patitucci, Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Mike Stern, Chucho Valdés, Randy Weston, and Lizz Wright. Invited musicians teach master classes where students from Latin America and the world come together to learn from the international masters of jazz. Among the musicians who have given lectures are Kenny Barron, Brian Blade, Ran Blake, Terri Lyne Carrington, Regina Carter, Santi Debriano, Jack DeJohnette, Nnenna Freelon, Tia Fuller, Eddie Gómez, Craig Handy, Charlie Hunter, Stanley Jordan, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Marco Pignataro, Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Sanchez, Wayne Shorter, Janis Siegel, Ben Street, Steve Turre, Chucho Valdés, and Randy Weston. The festival supports the year-round educational programs of Danilo Perez Foundation, which brings art and music to children from all socio-economic status in the Republic of Panama. The idea for the Danilo Perez Foundation originated in the 1965 when Danilo Perez Urriola (father of the pianist) started his educational programs with children of poverty in Panama and created an elementary and high school curriculum where all classes were taught through improvisation, composition, and the performance of music. Recordings Panama Suite (2006) was recorded with students and faculty of Berklee College of