The CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival has announced legendary guitar player Pat Metheny will headline the festival's opening night on June 23rd.

Metheny will perform at 8 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 9th only at RochesterJazz.com.

Metheny this year is launching a new playing environment he calls "Side-Eye": “I wanted to create an ongoing setting to feature a rotating cast of new and upcoming musicians who have particularly caught my interest along the way. From my earliest days in Kansas City onward, I was the beneficiary of so many older musicians giving me a platform to develop my thing through the prism of their experience and the particular demands of what their music implied. I have been feeling like I wanted to have a specific platform to focus on some of the many younger musicians I have enjoyed recently who I have felt some kind of a kinship with."

He will be joined in Rochester by Chris Fishman on piano/keyboards and Joe Dyson on drums.

Metheny has been an international jazz star since 1974. He was voted "Guitarist of the Year' just this year in the DownBeat Readers Poll. .

The 20th anniversary edition of the festival will run June 23rd to July 1st.