University of Idaho/Lionel Hampton Center

The Lionel Hampton Center at the University of Idaho has its roots in a jazz festival which began at the University in 1968. The event grew under the direction of Dr. Lynn Skinner, who focused the festival on exposing young students to professional jazz musicians. In 1984, Lionel Hampton performed at the festival for the first time. Impressed with Hampton?s life-long commitment to education, Dr. Skinner asked him to sponsor the festival, and he accepted. The relationship expanded further when the School of Music was renamed for Hampton in 1987, and with the announcement of the Lionel Hampton Center in 2000. The Center, a four part vision, includes the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, the expansion of the jazz curriculum at the Lionel Hampton School of Music, the creation of the International Jazz Collections, and the future construction of a performance, archival and education center for jazz on the University of Idaho campus in Moscow, Idaho by 2007.Established in 1992 with the donation of historical materials of jazz legend Lionel Hampton, the International Jazz Collections at the Lionel Hampton Center have grown to be one of the premier archives in the world dedicated to the preservation of jazz.