
Next Jazz Legacy
Next Jazz Legacy is a new national apprenticeship program for women and non-binary improvisers in jazz, with the intersection of gender and race as a guiding principle.
Next Jazz Legacy is proud to announce the first list of seven emerging women and non-binary awardees selected for this new program, engaging the music community with another crucial step closer to a more inclusive future. Focused on increasing opportunities for musicians most underrepresented in the art form, the three-year, national program launched by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice – with major funding from the Mellon Foundation – will invest in each of these seven awardees through personalized apprenticeships, financial support, and a mission to inspire waves of lasting change.
Combining individual and group learning opportunities with a comprehensive support package designed to deliver deep impacts on every candidate’s career, Next Jazz Legacy champions those whose access to resources has been limited. With gender and racial justice as guiding principles, this inaugural group of Next Jazz Legacy awardees was chosen through an open call process and a meticulous, months-long review process by a distinguished and diverse panel of jazz trailblazers, chaired by NEA Jazz Master and Next Jazz Legacy’s Artistic Director, Terri Lyne Carrington. Once the seven awardees were selected, Carrington and the Next Jazz Legacy team worked closely with each of the seven musicians to match them with a pair of master bandleaders for a year-long performance apprenticeship, as well as an additional creative mentorship, both aligned with the awardees’ unique interests.
See the full list of Next Jazz Legacy artists, their respective instruments and bandleader pairings below. Any questions should be addressed to our Program Manager Lolivone de la Rosa at nextjazzlegacy@newmusicusa.org
Awardees
Drummer & Composer Apprenticeship: esperanza spalding | Creative Mentor: Wayne Shorter
Singer/songwriter, Trombonist & Multi-instrumentalist | Apprenticeship: Tia Fuller | Creative Mentor: Bobby McFerrin
Musician, Composer & Producer | Apprenticeship: Lizz Wright | Creative Mentor: Brandon Ross
Pianist, Vocalist & Composer | Apprenticeship: Marcus Miller | Creative Mentor: Georgia Ann Muldrow
Pianist & Organist | Apprenticeship: Chris Potter | Creative Mentor: Kris Davis
Guitarist & Composer | Bandleader: Linda May Han Oh | Creative Mentor & Recording: Bill Stewart
Trombonist, Composer & Educator | Apprenticeship: Mary Halvorson | Creative Mentor: Jen Shyu
Why This Program Is Needed
According to an analysis of NPR’s 2019 Jazz Critics poll…





Next Jazz Legacy amplifies and addresses the need for all the masters of jazz to contribute to (and understand the need for) a more equitable jazz future. The people that have benefitted the most from patriarchal structures are precisely the ones that need to help us address the problem. Otherwise, they are modelling - and sometimes teaching - how to replicate systems of oppression in our field.

- Terri Lyne Carrington (Chair)
Next Jazz Legacy Advisory Board
Artistic Director, BIJGJ

Gabrielle Armand
VP Brand, Sales, Marketing, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Darlene Chan
FestivalWest, Inc., Los Angeles, New Orleans
Vocalist & educator
Pianist & Composer/Associate Director of Creative Development, BIJGJ
Director of Hip Hop Culture & Contemporary Music, The Kennedy Center
Executive Director, Little Black Pearl Art and Design Academy
Trumpeter, bandleader, composer and educator
Producer at NPR
President & CEO, New Music USA
New York Winter Jazz Festival
Jazz pianist & composer
Pianist & composer
Songwriter, bassist, guitarist & West Coast Dir. of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz
Managing Director, Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
Press & Media Links
Funders
Next Jazz Legacy is a partnership between New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with support from the Mellon Foundation. Next Jazz Legacy extends their gratitude to Joseph A. and Nancy Meli Walker for their generosity.

