By Rick Zeigler—
MUNCIE, IN – Acclaimed blues horn player Vanessa Collier will be performing in a FREE outdoor concert as part of the 2025 Muncie Three Trails Music Series. The concert will take place at 7:00 PM on Saturday, August 23rd at Brown Family Amphitheater on the campus of Ball State University. Local favorites The Fierce will open the show.
Vanessa Collier is a master musician and instrumentalist, weaving funk, soul, rock, and blues into powerful performances and dynamite recordings. With soulful vocals, searing saxophone, and witty songwriting, Vanessa is blazing a trail, racking up an impressive arsenal of honors, and has already singled herself out as an artist of distinction and one we would all do well to watch.
She is a 15-time Blues Music Awards (BMA) nominee and a 4-time winner, including in 2024 for Horn Player of the Year (her third time winning that award). Her 2024 BMA nominations also included Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year (an award she won in 2022) and B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.
What is impressive is not simply the accolades Vanessa has accumulated so far, it’s the fact that she has accumulated all these honors even while her career is still in its infancy. Having first picked up the saxophone at the age of nine, Collier embarked on her road to recognition at the famed Berklee College of Music, earning dual degrees in Performance and Music Production & Engineering. While still completing her degree, Collier landed a position touring with Joe Louis Walker for a year and a half before Joe encouraged her to strike out on her own. And strike out she did.
These days, Collier spends much of her time on the road, performing at some of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, and she has also released six critically acclaimed albums, including her latest, Do It My Own Way, which finds her stretching beyond her blues roots to included influences by soul artists like Mavis Staples, Sharon Jones, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin. “I am driven to do this because I find it a total form of expression and connection,” Vanessa explains. “I love connecting with an audience and feeling their energy and I hope to inspire people to follow their dreams and passions, to find what brings them joy, and then to pursue it doggedly.” She also takes that message to young people as she runs clinics across the country and is active with Blues in the Schools programs.
The Muncie Three Trails Music Series is a non-profit partnership between Muncie Downtown Development Partnership and Rick Zeigler, series founder and organizer. The mission of the series is to bring critically acclaimed, national recording artists to perform at Canan Commons, Muncie’s premier outdoor performance venue, located in the heart of Downtown Muncie, and at the Brown Family Amphitheater at Ball State University. A second mission is to promote the many recreational, artistic, and cultural attractions located along, or in close proximity to downtown Muncie, Ball State, and Muncie’s popular “Three Trails” — The White River Greenway, Cardinal Greenway, and Muncie Arts and Culture Trail.
We hope attendees will heed our slogan, “Explore the Trails, Enjoy the Music.”
