In 1990, Ron and Lani Riches attended the Santa Fe Opera where they saw a production of Puccini’s La Bohème, and the Natchez Festival of Music was born. What began 25 years ago purely as an opera festival has evolved into one of Mississippi’s major music festivals.

Today, the festival lasts for three weeks each May and presents all kinds of musical events from Opera to Broadway, to Jazz and this year, the Blues. The festival enjoys significant support from the community, from tourists, and from all over Mississippi, Louisiana, and beyond.

In recent years, our slogan for the festival became: “Come for the music and stay for the experience.” We chose those words because they reflect our goal to be a cultural tourism tool for the city of Natchez.

Every month throughout the year the Natchez Festival of Music Board of Directors meets to discuss new ways for the festival to reach its overarching goals: to provide quality of life for local citizens, educational outreach, tourism, and economic development.

These are the consistent goals around which we create and develop our annual objectives. In terms of quality of life, the Festival provides local citizens with significant cultural events to attend not only during the May festival, but year-round.

In terms of education, the festival annually presents a children’s production for more than 8,000 children in the Miss-Lou area. This places us among the top-ranking organizations in the United States that provide cultural outreach for children, and our educational outreach program is among the best in the nation.

In terms of tourism, we annually draw cultural tourists to Natchez by offering a wide variety of musical events in historic venues known around the world.

And finally in terms of economic development, we are simply another tool for the community that enhances Natchez as an attractive place to live and work.

This year’s festival begins on May 2, with “Night at the Oscars II.” Last year’s “Night at the Oscars” featured music from 1927 – 1941. We continue this year with some of the greatest tunes heard on the silver screen from 1942 to the mid 1950s, an era that includes the swing era and birth of rock and roll.

One of our most exciting events this season is “The Best of the Mississippi Blues” featuring world-renowned Blues artist Vasti Jackson. He’s going to take the roof off the Margaret Martin building on May 9 with some of the most exciting Blues music ever written.

The third weekend features The Pirates of Penzance on May 16, one of the funniest stage productions in the history of musical theatre. Our finale weekend brings the festival to a close with one of the world’s most beautiful musical masterpieces, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on May 23.

The festival has assembled an outstanding cast of wonderful, young professional artists and seasoned professionals who come to Natchez because of the national reputation this festival has attained. They come here to share their art with local citizens as well as tourists. For these artists, Natchez is a place where their professional dreams begin to come to life.

The citizens of Natchez can be very proud of this festival. Please demonstrate your support by attending as many events as possible in this and future seasons.

For tickets visit us online, natchezpilgrimage.com, call (601) 446-6631, or visit us in person at Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, 640 S. Canal Street, Natchez, MS.

Jay Dean is artistic director of the Natchez Festival of Music.