Vita West Muir
Executive/Artistic Director
Email: vmuir@litchfieldjazzfest.com
Vita West Muir is the founder and executive/artistic director of Litchfield Performing Arts, Inc. (1981- present). She continues to develop all the nonprofit’s programs, starting with a top-flight classical series that lasted 20 years with artists like the Cleveland, Tokyo, and Emerson String Quartets, many arts-in-education residencies including Project Poetry Live! which served thousands of middle schoolers across Connecticut for 25 years and received a major US Department of Education award. Muir is the force behind the internationally acclaimed Litchfield Jazz Festival (since 1996), presenting superstars like Dave Brubeck, Roy Haynes, Ray Charles and Wayne Shorter and discovering exciting newcomers like Diana Krall, Brad Mehldau and Christian McBride. In 1997 she launched Litchfield Jazz Camp which now hosts 300 students for a month each summer and provides need-based scholarships.
Muir began her career, after receiving a degree in biology from Fordham University, as a writer documenting the BioMedical Results of the Apollo Program for NASA and later freelancing for Reader’s Digest and other magazines. She made the transition to arts presenter serendipitously when she moved her family into a large historic home in Litchfield CT and welcomed in the community. That effort became a not-for-profit in 1983.
Muir has served on the Litchfield board since its founding, on the boards of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Connecticut Junior Republic, and Young Audiences. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Governor’s Award for Culture and Tourism, a Paul Harris Medal, and awards from the DAR, Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts, the first CultureMax Lifetime Achievement Award, The Elizabeth L. Mahaffey Arts Administration Fellowship, the Inge Morath Award and others. Most recently, she is a 2018 Honoree of the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. From her perspective, however, all these pale in comparison with the hundreds upon hundreds of happy, productive, arts-imbued lives her work has launched.
Tegan Ryan
Managing Director
Email: tegan@litchfieldjazzfest.com