“My dad, he always gets on me. He wants me to be a preacher, but I always tell him, ‘Music is my pulpit. That’s where I preach,’” Carlos Simon reflected for The Washington Post. Having grown up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him, GRAMMY-nominated Simon proves that a well-composed song can indeed be a sermon. His music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism.

Simon is the current Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and frequently writes for the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. Simon also holds the position of inaugural Composer Chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the first in the institution’s 143-year history.

In the 2024/25 season, Simon will have premiere performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Last Night of the Proms (in his BBC Proms commissioning debut), Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Carnegie Hall for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. The season also features the premiere of Simon’s Gospel Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, a work reimagining the traditional mass with gospel soloists and choir, with visual creations from Melina Matsoukas (Beyoncé Formation, Queen and Slim).

This follows previous commissions from the likes of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera (in collaboration with Mo Willems), New York Philharmonic and Bravo! Vail, Minnesota Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

As well as his composition work, Simon frequently curates concert programmes, which often highlight his own music as well as that of close collaborators. Curation concerts have recently been programmed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Chamber Players, Tanglewood Festival for Contemporary Music, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Simon also curated and arranged Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra, a new project co-commissioned by TO Live (for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, in partnership with the Coltrane Estate.

August 2024 saw the release of Simon's first full-length orchestral album, Four Symphonic Works, comprised of live concert recordings by the National Symphony Orchestra from the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Simon also composed the original soundtrack for the PBS documentary Shame of Chicago: Shame of the Nation, which was released as a digital album in April 2024.

In September 2023, Simon released two albums on Decca. Together is a compilation of solo and chamber compositions and arrangements featuring Simon and guests such as J’Nai Bridges, Randall Goosby, Seth Parker Woods and Will Liverman. The work draws on Carlos’ personal experience as an artist to highlight the importance of heritage and identity, and the power of collaborative music-making.

Simon also released the live premiere recording of brea(d)th, a landmark work commissioned by Minnesota Orchestra and written in collaboration with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush. “Arguably the most important commission of Simon’s career so far” (New York Times), brea(d)th was written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans.

Simon was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his previous album, Requiem for the Enslaved. The requiem is a multi-genre musical tribute to commemorate the stories of the 272 enslaved men, women, and children sold in 1838 by Georgetown University, released by Decca in June 2022. This work sees Simon infuse his original compositions with African American spirituals and familiar Catholic liturgical melodies, performed by Hub New Music Ensemble, Marco Pavé, and MK Zulu.

Acting as music director and keyboardist for GRAMMY Award winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with Boston Pops, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has also toured internationally with soul GRAMMY-nominated artist Angie Stone and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. He is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. He has served as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and now serves as Associate Professor at Georgetown University. Simon was also a recipient of the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization to recognize extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians, and was named a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow for his work for film and moving image.

• Awards: Grand Prize winner of the 2010 Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé.
• GRAMMY Nomination: Recognized for his role as Apollo in the Naxos recording of Milhaud's L'Orestie d'Eschyle.
• Notable Roles: Frequently performs as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Dandini in La Cenerentola, and Jake in Porgy and Bess.
• Concert Work: Made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2011 with Mendelssohn’s Elijah and is a regular soloist with the Oratorio Society of New York.
• Recording: Released Black Pierrot with pianist Warren Jones, which was recognized by the Washington Post. 
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Joachim’s 2025-26 season includes several appearances at Opera Philadelphia as their Composer-in-Residence, including her contribution to the company’s world premiere opera Complications in Sue. She presents material from her upcoming opera Le présent éternel at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in November 2025 and joins the New York Philharmonic for an expanded version of the work in May 2026 as the featured artist in the orchestra’s Sound On series. Joachim also appears at Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School as an Arnhold Creative Associate, premieres her new multimedia work

Solitude + S P A C E at Princeton Sound Kitchen and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and joins DeCoda for performances of Fanm d’Ayiti in San Francisco and at Stanford University. Further world premieres this season include works written for London Sinfonietta/Holland Festival and the Jacksonville Symphony.

Ms. Joachim is Assistant Professor of Composition at Princeton University and is regularly commissioned to write for orchestra, instrumental and vocal ensembles, dance, and interdisciplinary theater. Her landmark project, Fanm d’Ayiti, an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet and electronics, celebrates and explores her personal Haitian heritage and received a GRAMMY nomination for Best World Music Album. Joachim’s sophomore album, Ki moun ou ye - an intimate examination of ancestral connection and self - was co-released by Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records in 2024, and deemed “one of the year’s most creatively and personally ambitious albums.” (SPIN Magazine). Joachim is a recent Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum of Modern Art, and a United States Artist Fellow. She is an alumnus of The Juilliard School and The New School.

Weston won the first Emerging Black Composers Project award sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony. The resulting work, Push, premiered by the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen in Davies Symphony Hall. Push was noted for, “Working in terse, delicate strokes, Weston covers a range of references from the African American musical tradition,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. “…an energetic and colorfully orchestrated mini-symphony, is the kind of work that makes you want to hear more of Weston’s music,” according to San Francisco Classical Voice. Weston’s Flying Fish, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall for its 125 Commission Project and the American Composers Orchestra, was described as having, “…episodes of hurtling energy, the music certainly suggested wondrous aquatic feats. I was especially affected, though, by an extended slower, quizzical episode with pensive strings and plaintive chords.” (New York Times). Subwaves, a musical tribute to the NYC Subway, premiered at David Geffen Hall by the Music Advancement Program orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.

Recordings and performances of Weston’s chamber music include the honor of a JACK Quartet Studio Recording Project for his string quartets Juba and Fudo Myoo. Dan Flanagan commissioned Notre Dame au Millieu for solo violin to appear on the recording The Bow and The Brush. Weston’s Pinkster Kings and Shape Shifter are featured on Ensemble Pi’s recording Reparations Now. The Bang on a Can All-Stars premiered Weston’s composition Dig It, commissioned by the group for the Ecstatic Music Festival in NYC. The Etchings Festival presented a portrait concert of Weston chamber works in preparation for future recording project.

The Boston Globe described Weston’s choral music as having a “knack for piquant harmonies, evocative textures, and effective vocal writing.” Weston’s catalog includes numerous works for choir using secular and sacred texts. His first cantata, A New Song, commissioned by the early music ensemble Washington Bach Consort under the direction of Dana Marsh, explores the nature of music using original text by the composer.  American Lamentation, composed for Choir of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Jeremy Filsell director, is an oratorio engaging the history of slavery in the NYC area and its connection to the church. The work, “establishes a distinct voice even as it incorporates a variety of traditions.” Trevor Weston’s other dramatic compositions include a 50-minute dramatic work, “4,” honoring the lives of the four girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham AL church bombing. The Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street recorded a CD of Trevor Weston’s choral works. Weston’s Rivers of Living Water appears in Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers. 

A list of ensembles performing Trevor Weston’s compositions include Roomful of Teeth, The Boston Children’s Chorus, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue Choir, Washington National Cathedral, The Starling Chamber Orchestra, Castle of our Skins, Mallarme Chamber Players, The Providence Singers, The San Francisco Girl’s Chorus, Chicago Sinfonietta, Seraphic Fire, Sacred and Profane, The Overlook Quartet, The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, The American Symphony Orchestra Quartet, The Yale Choral Artists, Harvard University Choirs,  The Tufts Chamber Chorus, Ensemble Pi, The Amernet String Quartet, The UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, The Washington Chorus, Trilogy: An Opera Company, and The Manhattan Choral Ensemble. In addition to his creative work, Weston completed the re-orchestration of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for the Center for Black Music Research in 2010.

Trevor Weston’s musical education began at St. Thomas Choir school in NYC at the age of ten.  He received his BA from Tufts University and continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his MA and PhD in music composition. His primary composition teachers were T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson and Andrew Imbrie and Richard Felciano. Dr. Weston is currently a Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Drew University in Madison, NJ and an instructor for the Music Advancement Program and Pre-College at The Juilliard School, NYC.

Montgomery’s music contains a breadth of musical depictions of the human experience – from statements on social justice themes, to the Black diasporic experience and its foundation in American music, to wistful adorations and playful spontaneity – reflective of her deeply rooted experience as a classical violinist and child of the radical New York City cultural scene of the 1980s and 90s. Her growing body of work includes solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral works, as well as a new concerto written for cellist Abel Selaocoe, These Righteous Paths (2026), and an opera in development with Lincoln Center Theater and The Metropolitan Opera, both of which explore family histories and the impact of her mother, playwright and actress Robbie McCauley, on the American historical narrative. These Righteous Paths will make a global impact through worldwide performances by co-commissioners Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Klarafestival, Narodowe Forum Muzyki, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Oregon Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the NTR Zaterdagmatinee. From choral-symphonic works such as I Have Something To Say (2019) to her more intimate solo instrumental works, she presents a fresh perspective on the contemporary concert music experience. In response to Montgomery’s GRAMMY®-winning work, Rounds (2021), San Francisco’s NPR station KQED stated: “This is what classical music needs.”

A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and a former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery is a frequent and highly engaged collaborator with performing musicians, composers, choreographers, playwrights, poets, and visual artists alike. Recent collaborations include a recording and touring project with Third Coast Percussion, including a newly commissioned percussion quartet and an appearance with Montgomery as featured soloist in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra; Chemiluminescence (2025), a new orchestral work co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and the Sphinx Organization.

Montgomery’s interest in improvisation and collective music-making has led to the development of The Everything Band, which comprises eight composer-performers of varied stylistic backgrounds, including her long-time collaborator, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, with whom she created the genre-bending improv duo, big dog little dog. Montgomery is also a founding member of the Blacknificent 7, a composer collective focused on presenting and supporting the works of Black composers through concert curation, scholarship, and mentorship.

At the heart of Montgomery’s work is a deep sense of community enrichment and a desire to create opportunities for young artists. During her tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, she launched the Young Composers Initiative, which supports high school-aged youth in creating and presenting their works, including regular tutorials, reading sessions, and public performances. Her curatorial work engages a diverse community of concertgoers and aims to highlight the works of underrepresented composers in an effort to broaden audience experiences in classical music spaces. Montgomery previously served on the Composition and Music Technology faculty at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.

Montgomery’s music has been heard on global stages across the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Asia, from the Hong Kong Cultural Center to the BBC Proms, Elbphilharmonie, Hollywood Bowl, and Carnegie Hall. Highlights include Song of Nzingha (2024), part of soprano Karen Slack’s evening-length recital African Queens alongside other composers from the Blacknificent 7; Procession (2024), a percussion concerto written for Cynthia Yeh, Principal Percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Space (2023), commissioned and performed by violinist Joshua Bell as part of his Elements project; Five Freedom Songs (2021), a song cycle conceived with and written for soprano Julia Bullock for the Sun Valley, Grand Teton, and Virginia Arts Music Festivals and San Francisco, Kansas City, Boston, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras; and an ongoing collaboration with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, which has led to several of her concert works being choreographed with major dance companies across the US, including the Nashville Ballet and the Miami Ballet, as well as I was waiting for the echo of a better day, a site-specific collaboration with Bard SummerScape.

Montgomery has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year. Since 1999, she has been affiliated with the Sphinx Organization in a variety of roles, including Composer-in-Residence for the Sphinx Virtuosi, its professional touring ensemble. Montgomery holds degrees from The Juilliard School and New York University and is currently a doctoral candidate in music composition at Princeton University.

For more information, visit www.jessiemontgomery.com

Marsalis has been called the “Pied Piper” of jazz and the “Doctor of Swing.” Since his recording debut in 1982, he has released 136 jazz, classical and alternative recordings and won many awards, from a home cooked meal to honors requiring a tuxedo. He regularly performs in the most prestigious concert halls, and has been known to play until all hours of the morning in the most inconspicuous local clubs. From the very beginning of his career, education has been vital to his mission. He has taught and mentored a voluminous number of musicians who have gone on to play, teach and advocate in their own brilliant ways. Through these relationships Marsalis has ensured that the legacy of jazz music will continue to propagate for generations to come.

Over the past four and half decades, Marsalis has rekindled and animated widespread international interest in jazz through performances, educational activities, books, curricula, and relentless advocacy on public platforms. Today, Marsalis continues the renaissance that he sparked in the early 1980s, attracting new generations of young talent to jazz and illuminating the mythic meanings of jazz fundamentals.

Marsalis performs and composes across the entire spectrum of jazz and has written jazz-influenced chamber music and symphonic works for revered classical ensembles across the US and abroad. He is inspired to experiment in an ever-widening palette of forms and concepts that constitute some of the most advanced thinking in modern jazz and in American music on the broad scale.

Wynton Marsalis’ core beliefs are based on jazz fundamentals: freedom and individual creativity (improvisation), collective action and good manners (swing), as well as acceptance, gratitude and resilience (the blues). Marsalis believes that music has the power to elevate our quality of life and lead us to both higher and lower levels of consciousness. He maintains that music can elevate the quality of human engagement for individuals, social networks and cultural institutions throughout the world.

A Musical Upbringing

Wynton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 18, 1961, to jazz pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis Jr. and Dolores Marsalis. He is the second of six sons, preceded by Branford Marsalis and followed by siblings Ellis III, Delfeayo, Mboya and Jason.

From an early age, Wynton’s father Ellis encouraged him to channel himself into music. In years to come, Wynton would develop an avid desire to participate in the cultural community that surrounded him in New Orleans. He maintained a curiosity about his father and his musician friends that would often come by the family home for a visit, or to shed tunes. During these visits, Wynton would overhear his father’s discussions and debates surrounding the Civil Rights Act and key political figures of the time, such as Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Lyndon B. Johnson. It was through these conversations that Wynton first began to comprehend the power of music to express the human experience: what was happening on the streets of America found its way into the sounds of these men’s instruments.

When he was six, his father’s friend Al Hirt gifted Wynton his first trumpet. By eight years old, he had begun his musical journey with the historic Fairview Baptist Church Band, founded by Reverend Andrew Darby in 1970. There, he was introduced to the world of New Orleans jazz and brass band traditions. The band was directed by the legendary banjoist Danny Barker and his appointed bandleader Leroy Jones. Leroy was just 12 years old at the time.

It wasn’t until Wynton turned 12 himself that he started to become serious about his musicianship. It was around this age that he had a chance encounter with a young music student while riding the streetcar uptown. The student had caught Wynton staring at his Maurice André record — a classical album — and generously gave it to him to take home. Hearing André‘s rendition of Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major opened a new chapter in Marsalis’ musical studies. He decided he wanted to pursue the world of classical music.

Wynton’s father Ellis became the director of the jazz program at a newly formed performing arts school called the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts when Wynton was a young teen. Soon, the Marsalis brothers started attending lessons at the school. Wynton continued his studies there as he entered Benjamin D. Franklin High School. Renowned jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard and actor Wendell Pierce were among the talented and driven students who attended NOCCA with Wynton.

When he turned 14, Wynton performed with the New Orleans Philharmonic (now the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra). From there he quickly gained momentum on the local music scene. On any given evening, Wynton could be found playing with the New Orleans Symphony Brass Quintet, the New Orleans Community Concert Band, the New Orleans Youth Orchestra, local jazz and traditional brass bands, or with his popular local funk band, The Creators. At 17, Marsalis became the youngest musician ever to be admitted to Tanglewood’s Berkshire Music Center. Despite his youth, he was awarded the program’s prestigious Harry Shapiro Award for outstanding brass student.

Early Years in New York

After receiving his diploma from Benjamin D. Franklin High School in New Orleans, Marsalis left home to continue studying classical music at The Juilliard School in New York City. He enrolled in the fall of 1979.

While a student at Juilliard, Marsalis quickly began to take note of the flourishing jazz scene that was transpiring throughout the city. He soon started playing jazz gigs at some of the hottest clubs in town; it didn’t take long for the grapevine to begin to buzz with excitement about a young cat from New Orleans who was shaking up the scene.

Columbia Records signed Marsalis to his first recording contract in 1981— just over a year after he had left home.

Almost simultaneously, Wynton and his brother Branford seized the opportunity to join Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers to tour worldwide under master drummer and bandleader, “Bo” himself. Wynton decided to put his studies at The Juilliard School on hold. As his father put it, ‘Juilliard will be there, but touring with Art Blakey is an opportunity that won’t come by again.’

As a bandleader, Blakey didn’t mince his words—never afraid to lend his sharp, though constructive, criticism to the band. Wynton acquired his unique concept for bandleading from Blakey; his mentor also taught him the importance of exuding soulfulness in each and every performance.

Also in 1981, Wynton assembled his own quintet and hit the road. Since that year, he has performed 5,382 concerts in 863 distinct cities and 70 countries around the world. [From. [From the time of this writing—January 28, 2026]

Marsalis’ list of influences would expand in the years to follow, as he performed with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, his beloved mentor Harry “Sweets” Edison, Clark Terry, John Lewis, Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and countless other jazz legends. Playing with these heavy hitters impacted him greatly, and would inspire him to pave his own unique legacy in jazz music.

Off the bandstand, Marsalis encountered several others who would deeply change his outlook on music, American culture and the complexities of life. This included music critic, literary critic and novelist Albert Murray ; jazz critic, cultural critic and writer Stanley Crouch ; and jazz historian, professor, and public broadcaster Phil Schaap, among others. Marsalis would spend hours at their homes debating, philosophizing and absorbing the knowledge they willingly imparted on him.

Marsalis as a Recording Artist

Marsalis released his first, self-titled record in 1982. That same year, he also released his first classical album titled Haydn, Hummel, L. Mozart: Trumpet Concertos. His subsequent records Think of One (1983), Hot House Flowers (1984), and Black Codes (From The Underground) (1985) all garnered high volumes of critical and popular acclaim. In an August 1984 review of Hot House Flowers, The Los Angeles Times wrote:

“With the exception of the title tune, an attractive Marsalis original, all the compositions in this unique collection are old pop songs (‘Star Dust,’ 1927; ‘I’m Confessin’,’ 1930; ‘When You Wish Upon a Star,’ 1940; ‘Lazy Afternoon,’ 1954) or early jazz works: Duke Ellington’s little-known 1953 ‘Melancholia’ and John Lewis’ 1954 ‘Django.’

On paper, this looks like a pretentious production, with Marsalis’ regular sideman augmented by 20 strings, woodwinds, and Robert Freedman as arranger/conductor. Your reflexes tell you: Our new trumpet idol has sold out. Then you play the album and realize that instead of abandoning his principles, Marsalis, with considerable help from Freeman, has shown yet another aspect of his seemingly boundless artistry.”

Of course, with acclaim also came some criticism. Yet Marsalis’ work continued to surprise and captivate audiences throughout the decade and into the 1990s. His most well-known albums from this period of his career are Standard Time Vol. 3 — The Resolution of Romance (1990), Blood On The Fields (1997), A Fiddler’s Tale (1999) and Live at the Village Vanguard (1999).

In the early 2000s, Marsalis went on to record a number of records with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Quintet, Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. His stand-outs that have persisted in the minds of audiences over the years include The Marciac Suite (2000), All Rise (2002), The Magic Hour (2004), From the Plantation to the Penitentiary (2007), and He And She (2009).

On June 30, 2015, The New York Times announced the launch of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine Records label. Under Blue Engine, Marsalis has recorded 23 albums and nine singles. Most recently, he has released the recordings of his compositions Blues Symphony (2025 & 2021), The Shanghai Suite (2024), The Democracy! Suite (2021) and The Ever Fonky Lowdown (2020) with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet. In 2023, Blue
Engine Records released a number of Marsalis’ recordings originally produced for Blue Note Records: The Magic Hour, He and She, and more.

Of The Democracy! Suite, The San Francisco Chronicle stated:

“A foundational dialectic between tradition and innovation allows for radical evolution and the integration of far-flung influences. The Democracy! Suite isn’t about starting a new story. It’s music that makes sense of the current moment by paying close attention to past crossroads” – Andrew Gilbert, 2021

The album utilizes jazz as a metaphor for American democracy, celebrating the power of community and cooperation as means for creating an equitable environment for all. It was born out of the intense struggle during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the social, economic, cultural and political fabric of America was truly tested. Though it grapples with the brutal aspects of this global crisis, The Democracy! Suite ultimately leaves audiences with a message of optimism.

The Ever Fonky Lowdown shows the underbelly of the American ideal. A jazz parable, the work features an omniscient narrator named Mr. Game (Wendell Pierce): a mover, shaker, hustler and politico. Mr. Game enlightens the audience to the clear bond between America’s thirst for capitalistic gain—which runs in tandem with the chase for freedom and liberty. Here in America, one cannot exist without the other.

In total, Marsalis has released 127 recordings, including 113 jazz and classical albums, nine jazz singles, five alternative records. He has also released five DVDs. From the time of this writing, he has recorded a grand total of 1,539 songs. He has sold over seven million copies of his music worldwide and garnered three Gold Records.

His recordings consistently incorporate a heavy emphasis on the blues, and an inclusive approach to all forms of jazz—from New Orleans traditional jazz to modern styles and bebop.

(*) At the end of this page, you can find a comprehensive list of Wynton’s recordings.

Classical Career

Since his boyhood encounter with the young man on the New Orleans streetcar, Marsalis has maintained his love of classical music. His deep interest in the compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others has driven him to pursue classical music consistently throughout his career.

Marsalis recorded Haydn, Hummel, L. Mozart: Trumpet Concertos at age 20. It was his debut recording in the genre, receiving outstanding reviews and winning the GRAMMY Award® for “Best Classical Soloist with an Orchestra” in 1983. In September of that year, The Washington Post wrote:

“But at 22, Marsalis is accomplished in two extremely difficult disciplines that are the antithesis of each other. The strict interpretation of classical music is 180 degrees away from the vivid improvisation of jazz, yet Marsalis has both under such control that even the praise of his peers shares an odd harmony (Maurice André insists he could become the greatest interpreter ever of trumpet concerti, and Leonard Feather calls him ‘the symbol for the new decade’).” — Richard Harrington, “Marsalis, Jazzy AND Classical”:https://wyntonmarsalis.org/news/entry/marsalis-jazzy-and-classical,” The Washington Post, September 4, 1983

Marsalis also won the 1983 GRAMMY Award® for “Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist” for his album Think of One. With this, Marsalis became the first artist to win both jazz and classical Awards® in the same year. He repeated the distinction again in 1984 with his release of Wynton Marsalis Plays Handel, Purcell, Torelli, Fasch, and Molter alongside Hot House Flowers.

Another early emphasis in Wynton’s classical career was his collaboration with soprano Kathleen Battle on their 1992 recording Baroque Duet. The composition focuses on the transformation of the trumpet from an ‘outdoor’ military instrument to an ‘indoor’ one that could be accompanied by vocals for religious and regal music. As such, the recording recreated the performances of the seventeenth and eighteenth century’s most celebrated trumpeters and singers. Marsalis and Battle recorded the record with the esteemed Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

To date, Marsalis has recorded 20 classical records, all to critical acclaim. Marsalis has performed with the world’s leading orchestras including: The New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, The Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and London’s Royal Philharmonic. The head count of conductors he has collaborated with is equally as eminent. Among them are Raymond Leppard, Charles Édouard Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Davis Robertson and Cristian Măcelaru.

Marsalis as a Composer

Marsalis’ original compositions stand on their own as groundbreaking feats in the world of music. His contributions to the classical and jazz canons are significant, and many
are genre-bending. Marsalis has composed 641 original compositions across genres. His original work includes (but is not limited to) eight ballet and modern dance scores, two chamber pieces, two string quartets, a bassoon quartet, a fanfare, a mass, four symphonies, 13 original suites, a jazz oratorio, eight original scores for TV and film, and concertos for violin, tuba, trumpet, orchestra, and most recently, cello.

Marsalis’ work in composition writing began to take a heavy focus after his streak of GRAMMY wins from 1983 to 1987. His inventive interplay with melody, harmony and rhythm, along with his lyrical voicing and tonal coloring assert new possibilities for the jazz ensemble. As a classical composer, Marsalis’ pieces emphasize innovation, introducing new rhythms and orchestral concepts to the canon— many influenced by jazz and world ethnic traditions.

Prominent choreographers have embraced his inventiveness as they commissioned works to fuel their imagination for movement. The first was Garth Fagan, with Marsalis’ composition Citi Movement recorded in July of 1992.

Marsalis would then go on to compose numerous innovative scores in partnership with Lincoln Center’s constituent organizations for the remainder of the 1990s (more info on these collaborations can be found in the “Jazz at Lincoln Center” section of this page).

Alongside his pioneering work that has pushed the public’s perception of genre, Marsalis has also maintained a keen focus on reminding listeners of the great work of past eras. He has reconnected audiences with the beauty of the American popular song through his collections of standard recordings (Standard Time Volumes I-VI) as well as The Majesty Of The Blues, a mix of innovative sextet compositions and songs celebrating the magic of traditional New Orleans jazz. On many of his other blues recordings, Marsalis extended the jazz musician’s interplay with the blues — Uptown Ruler, Levee Low Moan, and Thick In The South are excellent examples.

In his jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields, Marsalis continued to reconceptualize the structure of extended form pieces that he had initiated with Citi Movement and In This House, On This Morning. Blood on the Fields draws upon the blues, work songs, chants, spirituals, New Orleans jazz, Ellington-esque orchestral arrangements and Afro-Caribbean rhythms—using Greek chorus-style recitations to progress the narrative of its two key characters, Jesse and Leona. The work tells the story of these two opposing characters’ long and tenuous journey in America: from their kidnapping in Africa, to their passage through the Transatlantic, their enslavement in the United States, and on to their fight for freedom. It was first performed in April of 1994 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, with its second performance broadcasted across the country by National Public Radio (NPR). New York Times Magazine claimed Blood on the Fields “marked a symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through Mingus, was extended into the present.” In 1997, Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Marsalis extended his achievements in Blood on the Fields with All Rise, an epic twelve-part composition for big band, gospel choir, and symphony orchestra. The work examines the global commonalities in music across culture, time and circumstance: from New Orleans brass bands to clave and samba, to church music and Chinese parade bands, the Italian aria, and more. Movements I to IV concentrate on the themes of birth and self-discovery; the second four movements grapple with mistakes, pain, sacrifice and redemption. The last four movements are concerned with maturity and joy. In sum, the piece demonstrates the many facets of human experience. All Rise was performed by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur, along with the Morgan State University Choir and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (December 1999).

Several years later, Marsalis collaborated with Ghanaian master drummer Yacub Addy to create Congo Square, a groundbreaking composition combining harmonies from America’s jazz tradition with fundamental rituals in African percussion and vocals (2006).

For the anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church’s 200th year of service, Marsalis blended Baptist church choir cadences with blues accents and big band swing rhythms to compose The Abyssinian Mass. The work was performed by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Abyssinian’s 100 voice choir with special guests Damien Sneed and Chorale Le Chateau before packed houses in New York City (May 2008).

In the fall of 2009, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra premiered Marsalis’ composition Blues Symphony. Here he infused blues and ragtime rhythms with symphonic orchestrations to create a fresh representation of classical repertoire. Marsalis further expanded his catalog for symphony orchestra with his piece Swing Symphony, employing complex layers of collective improvisation. The work was premiered by the renowned Berliner Philharmonie and performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in June 2010.

Marsalis made a significant addition to his oeuvre with Concerto in D, his violin concerto composed for virtuoso Nicola Benedetti. The concerto is constructed into four movements: “Rhapsody,” “Rondo Burlesque,” “Blues,” and “Hootenanny.” The concerto traces the distinct connection between the Anglo-Celtic traditions and those of Afro-American culture, illustrating these links with sweeping melodies, jazzy orchestral dissonances, blues-tinged themes, fancy fiddling and a rhythmic swagger. Concerto in D was given its world premiere by the London Symphony Orchestra in November 2015; it was premiered stateside by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia in July 2016.

Marsalis further deepened his musical imagination with The Jungle, performed by the New York Philharmonic along with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (December 2016). “The Jungle,” according to Marsalis, “is a musical portrait of New York City, the most fluid, pressure-packed, and cosmopolitan metropolis the modern world has ever seen.” The New York Philharmonic and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra reunited to present The Jungle in Shanghai in July 2017.

Marsalis released his 3-hour jazz parable The Ever Fonky Lowdown just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing narration, big band orchestration and vocals, the expansive composition critiques the insidious relationship between consumerism and American culture. It is narrated by actor Wendell Pierce, includes vocals from Camille Thurman, Christie Dashiell, Doug Wamble, and Ashley Pezzotti, and the instrumentals of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

In 2021, he premiered his Tuba concerto, commissioned by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and composed for the all-star tubist Carol Jantsch. Also within the past two years, Wynton has premiered a bassoon quartet (4 Bassoons Talking, 2021), his fanfare Herald, Holler and Hallelujah! (2022) and his second string quartet, Still Singing, which premiered at the opening of The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center at Pocantico on September 29, 2022.

April 27, 2023 marked the world premiere of Marsalis’ Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. Written in collaboration with The Cleveland Orchestra for Cleveland’s Principal Trumpet Michael Sachs, it represents Marsalis’ newest advance in the world of classical music. “Through this process of delving into the traditions of our instrument, [Michael Sachs] and I have literally conversed for hours with unforced enthusiasm about all the great teachers we’ve had, august masters we love, fantastic younger players we encounter, and ultimately, what we continue to learn from our instrument through favorite recordings, fresh insights and funny performance experiences,” Marsalis wrote for the premiere’s program notes. “I want this concerto to enable Mike to convey the broad depth of feeling and joy of discovery that defines our proud legacy as trumpeters.” Consisting of six movements, Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra navigates the diverse history of the trumpet: starting in the jungle with nature’s first trumpeter, the elephant; then, on to the legacy of Louis Armstrong, further to the Afro-Hispanic diaspora in the Americas and the regality of the trumpet in the French tradition, in the blues and the Eastern European Jewish tradition, and also the role of trumpet in the universal ‘joker’ trope.

For the opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Mother Africa” 2025-2026 Season, Marsalis composed an entirely new jazz suite titled Afro! The epic work premiered on September
18 th , 2025 in New York City with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, djembefola drummer Weedie Braimah, and vocalist Shenel Johns. The seven-movement work explores the ties between the African diaspora and jazz, weaving its way through the many evolutions of African rhythms, oral histories, and acoustics that have instilled themselves throughout the American musical canon: from the Gospel traditions of the church, to the clashing rhythms of New Orleans brass bands, to the sensuous Afro-Cuban clave, and back through ragtime. Afro! serves as an expansion of the ideas explored in Blood on the Fields, Congo Square, and Ochas.

Television, Radio & Literary

Throughout his career, Marsalis has taken on an inexhaustible advocatory role for jazz music. He has often been referred to as The Conscience of Jazz. Through the mediums of television, radio, journalism and literature, he has communicated his message to the world about the imperative force of jazz to elevate our livelihood and culture.

Marsalis had two documentaries made on his music and perspective early in his career: Catching a Snake in 1985 and Playing Through the Changes in 1992. Though many years have passed since these two pieces aired, Marsalis’ overall message about jazz music and its importance as a classic American art form have remained consistent to date.

In the fall of 1995, Wynton launched two major broadcast events. That October on PBS, he premiered Marsalis on Music, an educational television series on jazz and classical music which he wrote and hosted. Writers distinguished Marsalis on Music with comparisons to Leonard Bernstein’s celebrated Young People’s Concerts of the 1950s and 60s. That same month, NPR aired the first of Marsalis’ 26-week series entitled Making the Music. These entertaining and insightful radio shows were the first full exposition of jazz music in American broadcast history. Wynton’s radio and television series’ were awarded the most prestigious distinction in broadcast journalism, the George Foster Peabody Award. The Spirit of New Orleans, Marsalis’ poetic tribute to the New Orleans Saints’ first Super Bowl victory (Super Bowl XLIV) has also received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Feature (2011).

From 2012 to 2014, Wynton served as cultural correspondent for CBS News, writing and presenting features for CBS This Morning on an array of topics: from Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela and Louis Armstrong to Juke Joints, BBQ, the Quarterback & Conducting and Thankfulness.

Marsalis has been interviewed for countless documentaries and educational specials on jazz music, as well as classical. One of his most notable moments in this vein was his collaboration with Ken Burns in 2001 on his documentary miniseries Jazz. Other examples include his contributions to A World Without Beethoven? (2020), TCM’s Jazz in Film series (2020), and his interviews with LIFE on Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong (2015). Marsalis is consistently called upon to speak about the legacies of other jazz legends. He has given interviews on Charles Mingus, George Butler, Marcus Belgrave, Leonard Bernstein, John Lewis, on mystical character Frankie Presto, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and so many others.

In 2022, Marsalis’ outlook on jazz and its history was featured in the documentary Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues, on BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week series, The Glenn Gould Foundation’s The Gould Standard podcast, and on The Bill Maher Show.

Marsalis has written six books: Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life, To a Young Musician: Letters from the Road, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits and Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!, a sonic adventure for kids.

Select Awards and Accolades

Marsalis’ creativity has been celebrated throughout the world. He has won the Netherlands’ Edison Award and the Grand Prix Du Disque of France. The Mayor of Vitoria, Spain, awarded him with the city’s Gold Medal – its most coveted distinction.

Britain’s senior conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, granted Mr. Marsalis Honorary Membership, the Academy’s highest decoration for a non-British citizen (1996). The city of Marciac, France, erected a bronze statue in his honor. The French Ministry of Culture appointed Wynton the rank of Knight in the Order of Arts and Literature and in the fall of 2009 Wynton received France’s highest distinction, the insignia Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, an honor that was first awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte. French Ambassador, His Excellency Pierre Vimont, captured the evening with his introduction:

“We are gathered here tonight to express the French government’s recognition of one of the most influential figures in American music, an outstanding artist, in one word: a visionary…

I want to stress how important your work has been for both the American and the French. I want to put the emphasis on the main values and concerns that we all share: the importance of education and transmission of culture from one generation to the other, and a true commitment to the profoundly democratic idea that lies in jazz music.

I strongly believe that, for you, jazz is more than just a musical form. It is tradition, it is part of American history and culture and life. To you, jazz is the sound of democracy. And from this democratic nature of jazz derives openness, generosity, and universality.”

In 2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proclaimed Wynton Marsalis an international ambassador of goodwill for the Unites States by appointing him a UN Messenger of Peace. Then, in November 2005, Wynton Marsalis was bestowed The National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States Government. Marsalis was honored with The National Humanities Medal by President Barak Obama in 2015, in recognition of his work to deepen the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broaden American citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages and philosophy.

In the five decades preceding Marsalis’ 1997 Pulitzer Prize win for Blood on the Fields, the Pulitzer Prize jury had refused to recognize jazz musicians and their improvisational music, reserving the distinction solely for classical composers. In the years following Marsalis’ award, the Pulitzer Prize for Music has been awarded posthumously to Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane. In a personal note to Wynton, Zarin Mehta wrote:

“I was not surprised at your winning the Pulitzer Prize for Blood on The Fields. It is a broad, beautifully painted canvas that impresses and inspires. It speaks to us all … I’m sure that, somewhere in the firmament, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong and legions of others are smiling down on you.”

Marsalis has been honored with the Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal and the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Achievement and dubbed an “Honorary Dreamer” by the I Have a Dream Foundation. The New York Urban League awarded Wynton with the Frederick Douglass Medallion for distinguished leadership, and the American Arts Council presented him with the Arts Education Award. TIME magazine selected Wynton as one of America’s most promising leaders under age 40 in 1995; in 1996, TIME celebrated Marsalis again as one of America’s 25 most influential people. In 2011, the Marsalis family, including Wynton, became the first to receive a group NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment of the Arts. Honorary degrees have been conferred upon Marsalis by 41 of America’s leading academic institutions including Columbia, Harvard, Howard, Princeton, Yale and Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans.

In the winter of 2021, Marsalis was welcomed into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The same year, he was named the winner of the Dr. Maria Montessori Ambassador Award given by the American Montessori Society, Brooklyn for Peace’s PathMakers to Peace Award, the winner of the American Prairie Reserve’s Ken Burns American Heritage Prize and was presented the Key to the City of New York by Bill DeBlasio. In 2022, Marsalis was presented with SFJAZZ’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Marsalis’ album Black Codes (From the Underground) was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in the spring of 2023.

In November 2023, Wynton was bestowed the Praemium Imperiale for Music by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo. The Praemium Imperiale stands as the most prestigious arts award in Japan—and one of the most coveted in the world.
As the President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Wynton helps to propel and protect the legacy of jazz titan Louis Armstrong. In June 2024, Marsalis, along with Jackie Harris— Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation— and executives of Verve Records, accepted the RIAA 5X Platinum Certification for Pops’ “What A Wonderful World.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center

During the mid-1980s, an executive by the name of Alina Bloomgarden began looking for fresh programming to present at Lincoln Center, one of the country’s most revered cultural institutions. Bloomgarden recognized that when it came to jazz, there was a distinct lack of representation in the fine arts world. She was determined to remedy this. Bloomgarden was innovative and knew that although her proposals were going unnoticed, with the right support, her vision would succeed. After years of attempts to bring jazz to classical music audiences, she presented the “Classical Jazz at Lincoln Center” summer concert series in 1987—with Wynton Marsalis as the Artistic Director.

The series lasted from 1987 to 1990, featuring jazz all-stars Betty Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Etta Jones, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Danny Barker, Dr. Michael White, and Joe Temperley, among many others. Marsalis and Bloomgarden realized that the series’ success opened the floodgates for jazz to be seen as a great American art form on the world stage. Marsalis enlisted a broad group of advocates to assist him in expanding the concert series into a jazz department at Lincoln Center. That list included, but was not limited to, Stanley Crouch, Albert Murray, Gordon Davis, Diane Coffey, and Jonathan Rose.

American art form on the world stage. Marsalis enlisted a broad group of advocates to assist him in expanding the concert series into a jazz department at Lincoln Center. That list included, but was not limited to, Stanley Crouch, Albert Murray, Gordon Davis, Diane Coffey, and Jonathan Rose.

As he was developing Lincoln Center’s Jazz Department in the 1990s, Marsalis sought to create artistic partnerships with the other branches of the Lincoln Center family. The goal was to connect across intellectual and methodical orbits: to combine jazz with everything from ballet to classical music and beyond. Every year, Marsalis endeavored to write a new collaborative piece that would connect the Jazz Department to one of Lincoln Center’s constituent organizations. These cooperative ventures would further solidify “Jazz at Lincoln Center” on its path to becoming an independent constituent itself. The first of these collaborations was with Peter Martins of the New York City Ballet in 1993, when Marsalis was commissioned to write two new ballet scores: Jump Start and Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements. In 1995, Marsalis collaborated with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society (LCCMS) to compose the string quartet At The Octoroon Balls. He premiered Sweet Release in 1996 in collaboration with Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the the-titled Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Marsalis then went on to compose Them Twos for the New York City Ballet, which premiered on June 3, 1999. His work with the LCCMS continued in 1998 when the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performed The Soldier’s Tale with the Chamber Music Society, and subsequently Marsalis created a response to Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale with his composition A Fiddler’s Tale. Also in 1998, Marsalis’ ballet score Ghost Story was choreographed by Judith Jamison and performed with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. All Rise was premiered with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and New York Philharmonic at Avery Fischer Hall in 1999.

In July 1996, due to the department’s significant success and growing community of support, Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) was installed as a new constituent organization of Lincoln Center, equal in stature with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Ballet. It marked a historic moment for jazz as an art form and for Lincoln Center as a cultural institution. Its mission was, and remains, to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy, with the belief that jazz is a metaphor for Democracy. JALC’s induction as a constituent to Lincoln Center was an amazing feat—now, all the organization needed was a place to call ‘home.’

This opportunity showed itself when, in August of 1998, Time Warner won New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the reconstruction of the New York Coliseum site at Columbus Circle. One requirement of the bid was for the new building to house a major arts and entertainment space. Wynton and then-JALC Executive Director Rob Gibson jumped at the occasion, creating what they called a “Campaign for a New Home,” in 1999.

The campaign, it turned out, was convincing: finally in October of 2004, with the assistance of a dedicated Board and staff, Marsalis opened Frederick P. Rose Hall, the world’s first entertainment complex solely dedicated to jazz. The complex contains three state-of-the-art performance spaces: Rose Theater (JALC’s largest performance space and the first concert hall designed specifically for jazz), the Appel Room (a medium-sized room designed in the style of an amphitheater), and Dizzy’s Club (a small, intimate jazz club). Frederick P. Rose Hall also boasts facilities for recording, broadcast, rehearsal and educational functions. Jazz at Lincoln Center has become a preferred venue for New York jazz fans and a destination for travelers from across the world. Marsalis presently serves as Managing and Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Under his leadership, Jazz at Lincoln Center has developed an international agenda presenting rich and diverse programming that includes concerts, debates, conferences, festivals, film forums, dances, television and radio broadcasts, and educational activities.

Jazz at Lincoln Center has become a mecca for learning as well as a hub for performance. Their comprehensive educational programming includes a Band Director’s Academy, a hugely popular concert series for kids called Jazz for Young People, Jazz in the Schools, the Middle School Jazz Academy, WeBop! (a program for kids ages 8 months to 5 years), Essentially Ellington (an annual High School jazz band competition & festival that reaches over 2000 bands in 50 states and Canada), The Jack Rudin Jazz Championship (an annual college jazz band competition) and an adult educational concert series titled “Journey through Jazz.”

Marsalis as an Educator

When Wynton was nearing the end of high school, he was accepted to some of the world’s top academic institutions: Harvard, Yale, and The Juilliard School. At the time, he was satisfied with what these names represented—he was sure that admittance to institutions of this caliber meant that his future would be golden. His mother, however, knew that a good education was more than just an illustrious name on a piece of paper. She challenged him by demanding, “What is the substance of your education?”

Marsalis took this lesson to heart. Throughout his career, a key component of his work has been to continue the legacy of jazz music through education. He has upheld this value by holding hundreds of master classes and open sound checks for students across the world, creating educational CDs, DVDs, TV specials, song books and picture books. Marsalis also upholds his mission for music education as the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, as the Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, and as the President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.

In the early years of his career, Marsalis made several appearances on educational television children’s programs such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. He took these appearances as opportunities to reach millions of children across the U.S., and spark their curiosity about jazz.

In 2009, Wynton created and presented Ballad of the American Arts at the Kennedy Center. The lecture/performance was written to elucidate the essential role the arts have played in establishing America’s cultural identity. “This is our story, this is our song,” stated Marsalis, “and if well-sung, it tells us who we are and where we belong.”

In 2011, Harvard University President Drew Faust invited Wynton to enrich the cultural life of the University community. Wynton responded by creating a 6-lecture series Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music, that he would deliver over the ensuing 3 years. The goal of the lectures was to foster a stronger appreciation for the arts and a higher level of cultural literacy in academia.

From 2015 to 2021, Marsalis served as an A.D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University. A.D. White Professors are charged with the mandate to enliven the intellectual and cultural lives of university students. Marsalis conducted masterclasses, lectures, classroom visits, and student performances during his time with the program.

Wynton has also been driven to create lasting content that can be shared with students for generations. His children’s books Jazz ABZ (2007) and Squeak, Rumble, Whomp, Whomp, Whomp!: A Sonic Adventure (2012) explore the creativity of jazz music along with illustrations by celebrated visual artist Paul Rogers. In 1999, Marsalis served as one of the composers for the children’s album  Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), GRAMMY® Award-winning baritone Will Liverman has been described as “a gifted chameleon of a singing actor who disappears into his roles” (Opera Magazine) with a “beaming, high baritone that easily asserts” (LA Times). Liverman has been praised internationally for his versatility in dramatic and comedic operatic roles and his dedication and vision as a composer, artist, and advisor, helping to evolve and push the performing arts industry forward. He is co-composer of The Factotum – praised as “mic-drop fabulous good” (Opera News) – which premiered with Liverman in the leading role to a sold-out production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023. 

Liverman is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was a Glimmerglass Festival Young Artist. He holds degrees from The Juilliard School (M.M.) and Wheaton College in Illinois (B.M.). Please visit www.willliverman.com for more information.

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This season, Overton will lead two productions for the Welsh National Opera’s new season. The new work Migrations, and in the world premiere of The Shoemaker. Overton will reprise his most celebrated role in Porgy and Bess as Porgy, co-produced by Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera. Concert engagements will include Handel’s Messiah at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, a concert staging of Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, a solo recital for the African American Music Festival at Pennsylvania State University, a solo recital with the Howland Chamber Music Circle, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen for the Spartanburg Philharmonic, and a return to The Kennedy Center with The Washington Chorus as the soloist for Duruflé's Requiem and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr

Last season’s operatic engagements included Kenneth’s Metropolitan Opera debut in the fall of 2021 as Lawyer Frazier in Porgy and Bess, a reprisal of the role of Ralph Abernathy in I Dream with Opera Carolina and Charlottesville Opera, The Homecoming Soldier in Zach Redler’s The Falling and The Rising with Opera Carolina, Germont in La Traviata for Fort Worth Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion. In concert, Overton appeared with the National Philharmonic as a soloist for Mozart’s Requiem and Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck, Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses with the Harlem Chamber Players, Handel’s Messiah with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Mozart’s Requiem with the National Chorale, as a soloist in “Deep River: Black Currents in Classical Music” with the American Composer’s Orchestra, a solo recital with The Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, George Crumb’s American Songbook II with Chamber Music Northwest, and the premiere of Damien Geter’s An African American Requiem with the Oregon Symphony – with subsequent performances at the Kennedy Center with Choral Arts Society of Washington.

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Most recently, Overton appeared in On Site Opera’s The Road We Came, an immersive and site-specific experience that explores the composers, musicians and places that define the rich Black history of New York City through a series of self-guided, musical walking tours.  He also sang the title role in Porgy and Bess for New Orleans Opera as well as A Night of Black Excellence with Fort Worth Opera and this past summer, Nadia Boulanger and Her World with the Bard Music Festival.

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Previously, Kenneth made a triumphant role début of Friar Lawrence in Roméo et Juliette with Oregon Bach Festival; performing on the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death and conducted by the irreverent John Nelson, critics deemed the production “too beautiful, too musical” not to be performed. Whilst at the festival, he also performed Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Magnificat.  In addition, he returned to San Francisco Opera for Billy Budd, performed in Porgy and Bess with Harrisburg Symphony, and performed in Union Avenue Opera’s 25th Anniversary Gala. In concert, he appeared at Carnegie Hall for Angela Rice’s Thy Will be Done and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, Mechem’s Songs of the Slave with Symphony of the Mountains, and with the Oregon Bach Festival for Richard Danielpour’s Passion of Yeshua which he also sang at UCLA’s Royce Hall as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic which was recorded for release on Naxos.

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Mr. Overton is quickly becoming a champion of new works, returning to San Francisco Opera in “the most eagerly anticipated new opera of the season”; the World Premiere of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West.  He also created the role of Ralph Abernathy in the World Premiere of the Rhythm & Blues opera I Dream by Douglas Tappin for Opera Grand Rapids, Toledo Opera, and Opera Carolina and performed the role of Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars for Union Avenue Opera.  

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Previous engagements also include Amonasro in Aida with Boheme Opera, a return to The New York City Opera performing the role of Jake Wallace in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly for Opera Idaho.  Additionally, Kenneth thrived in his Hungarian debut as the title role in Porgy and Bess in the Margaret Island Open Air Theatre’s production where he was heralded as one of “America’s most renowned Opera singers.” 

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Alongside the New England Symphonic Ensemble, Kenneth took Carnegie Hall by storm in his soloist performances of Faure’s Requiem and the New York Premier of Michael John Trotta’s Seven Last Words of Christ with Mid America Productions. In addition, he returned to David Geffen Hall with the National Chorale in Mozart’s Requiem, and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore. He also starred in the significant World Premiere of Upon This Handful of Earth by Norwegian Composer Gisle Kverndokk, commissioned by the New York Opera Society.

Kenneth’s ever blossoming career has allowed him to perform with some of the most prestigious Opera Companies and Orchestral Organizations in the world, highlights include his 2017 New York Philharmonic debut, and his San Francisco Opera debut as Lawyer Frazier in Porgy and Bess and a return to the company as Sid in La Fanciulla del West.  As a leading baritone, Kenneth has performed with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Opera Memphis, Sacramento Opera, Nashville Opera, Connecticut Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Toledo Opera, Opera Delaware, Shreveport Opera, Opera Tampa, and Opera Carolina. Kenneth has been seen as Germont in La Traviata, Michele in Il Tabarro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Marcello and Schaunard in La bohème, Ping in Turandot, Angelotti in Tosca, as well as Bello and Sid in La Fanciulla del West. 

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Kenneth’s interpretation of the title role in Porgy and Bess has been proclaimed as “breathtaking.” He has performed the role over 100 times at international houses such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin in the critically acclaimed production from South Africa’s Cape Town Opera, Palacio Bellas Artes in Mexico City, L’Opera Montreal, and he triumphed in Tony Award Winning Director John Doyle’s new staging for The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and debuted the role at various houses on tour throughout the British Isles. Kenneth has also portrayed Porgy in concert with the Traverse City Symphony, the Springfield Symphony, the National Chorale at David Geffen Hall – Lincoln Center, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the Paducah Symphony, the Richmond Symphony, the Sopot Festival in Poland, and the Klangvokal Festival in Dortmund. Kenneth has also sung Porgy on stage in the USA at Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Opera Memphis, Opera Carolina, and the Lexington Opera Society. 

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Kenneth is widely recognized for his concert work, having performed as soloist with Phoenix Symphony, Norwalk Symphony, National Chorale, Harlem Chamber Players, Duluth Superior Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Oratorio Society of New Jersey, Lexington Philharmonic, Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Mineola Choral Society, Summit Chorale Festival, New York City Opera’s Schomberg Series, Sarasota Symphony, and San Antonio Symphony.  His concert and oratorio repertoire includes Faure’s Requiem, Duruflé's Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Christmas Oratorio (Saint-Saëns), Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Vaughn Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schubert’s Mass in A-flat, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Haydn’s Creation and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs. Kenneth is also regularly featured with the American Spiritual Ensemble as a soloist for annual performances in the USA and abroad.

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Kenneth’s versatile acting and singing abilities have allowed him to continue his passion for musical theater and new works. He made his Operatic Broadway debut in Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme. He triumphantly portrayed Joe in Showboat and Judge Turpin in Sweeny Todd for the Pensacola Opera, and excelled in the diverse contemporary works, Corps of Discovery by Michael Ching and The Widow’s Lantern by David Ott. 

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Pride and tradition portray the motif of Kenneth’s debut solo album Been In De Storm So Long:  Songs My Fathers Taught Me, his homage to the spiritual tradition that has been formative in his artistic life. Pianist Kevin Miller and Kenneth’s collaboration embody the historic Spirituals from our past and contemporary art songs by African American Composers, giving them a new life of their own. Along with industry professionals and colleagues in the community, Kenneth has joined the board of B.L.A.C., the Black Leadership Arts Collective. The organization is dedicated to supporting and empowering Black vocal artists through leadership, mentorship, education, and by providing scholarship and performance opportunities. He hails from Philadelphia.

His music has been praised as “devastatingly beautiful” (The Washington Post), “lyrical, complex, singular” (The Guardian), “dreamy, sensual” (The Boston Globe), and “affecting” (The New York Times). Rooted in tradition yet unmistakably contemporary, his work embodies what The Washington Post has called a voice that is “fresh and new and fearless.”

Okpebholo’s GRAMMY®-nominated solo album Lord, How Come Me Here? reimagines Negro spirituals and American folk hymns through a deeply personal and historically grounded lens. His most recent recording, Songs in Flight, continues that legacy of musical storytelling, earning widespread critical acclaim, including a double five-star review from BBC Music Magazine and a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Across his career, Okpebholo has received numerous honors, including awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Prize in Composition, the Music Publishers Association, ASCAP, and the inaugural Leslie Adams–Robert Owens Composition Award. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Mellon Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, and others.

His music has been commissioned and performed by a wide range of ensembles and institutions, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the United States Air Force Strings, Imani Winds, WindSync, Urban Arias, Sparks & Wiry Cries, and the Copland House Ensemble, and has been featured at major festivals such as Tanglewood, Aspen, and Newport Classical.

Okpebholo has held residencies with the Green Lake Festival of Music and at institutions including Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Florida State University, while teaching and giving masterclasses at Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, Duke University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

His chamber opera The Cook-Off, written with Pulitzer Prize–winning librettist Mark Campbell during his residency with Chicago Opera Theater, has been programmed by opera companies nationwide and received its fully staged world premiere with Nashville Opera.

His art songs have been performed by major opera companies including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Portland Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. His choral music has been championed by leading ensembles such as the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the American Spiritual Ensemble, and the Choir of Trinity Church Wall Street.

His chamber music has been performed by ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, Picosa, the 21st Century Consort, the Lincoln Trio, and the Copland House Ensemble, while his orchestral works have been performed by the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Houston Symphonies; the San Francisco and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras; the Spoleto Festival Orchestra; and the Lexington Philharmonic, where he served as Saykaly Garbulinska Composer-in-Residence.

Okpebholo has collaborated with an extraordinary range of performers, including vocalists J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Rhiannon Giddens, Will Liverman, Michael Mayes, Ryan McKinny, Reginald Mobley, and Karen Slack; pianists Aldo López-Gavilán, Paul Sánchez, and Howard Watkins; and instrumentalists Rachel Barton Pine, Steven Mead, and Adam Walker.

His music has been presented in iconic venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, the Concertgebouw, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His work has also been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and Morning Edition, SiriusXM’s Living American, and WFMT. His art song “The Rain” was named one of NPR’s 100 Best Songs of 2021—one of the few classical works to appear on the list. His music appears on twelve commercially released albums, including three GRAMMY®-nominated recordings.

Okpebholo’s ethnomusicological research in East and West Africa has shaped both his scholarly and creative voices. He has taught and led masterclasses in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya, sharing his music while learning deeply from the traditions he encounters.

He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s degree in composition from Asbury University. His musical journey began much earlier, however, at his local Salvation Army church, where he received free music lessons from childhood through high school. That early act of community generosity continues to fuel his commitment to access, outreach, and mentorship.

Okpebholo currently serves as the Jonathan Blanchard Distinguished Professor of Composition at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. He lives in Wheaton, Illinois, just outside Chicago, with his wife, violist Dorthy Okpebholo, and their daughters, Eva and Corinne.