Next Jazz Legacy Announces 2023 Cohort of Women and Nonbinary Awardees The program was created by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice to address gender and racial inequities in jazz.By
Tori Donahue
April 6, 2023
Next Jazz Legacys 2023 cohort of awardees
Image courtesy of New Music USA
Next Jazz Legacy is proud to announce the seven emerging women and nonbinary jazz musicians who comprise its 2023 cohort of awardees. The trailblazing program was created by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice to address gender and racial inequities by providing mentorship and professional development opportunities to those who have been underrepresented in jazz. Next Jazz Legacy receives major funding from the Mellon Foundation and support from Joe and Nancy Walker.
Combining individual and group learning opportunities with a comprehensive support package designed to deliver deep impacts on each candidate's career, Next Jazz Legacy champions those whose access to resources has been limited. With gender and racial justice as guiding principles, this group of Next Jazz Legacy awardees was chosen through an open-call process and a meticulous, months-long review by a distinguished and diverse panel of jazz luminaries, chaired by Terri Lyne Carrington, NEA Jazz Master and founder and artistic director of the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Once the 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 yearlong performance apprenticeship, as well as an additional creative mentorship, both aligned with the awardees' unique interests.
I'm very pleased with our selections for this year's Next Jazz Legacy awardees, said Carrington. We strive to amplify women and nonbinary musicians' voices and address the need for all musicians, practitioners, and professionals in jazz to contribute to a more equitable jazz future. I am both hopeful and confident that jazz is developing progressively toward this end. This is why this program is exciting and the future possibilities of the sound of jazz is exciting as well.
Alongside Carrington, the selection committee for the 2023 Next Jazz Legacy cohort included, from Berklee, Tanya Darby, chair of the Brass Department, and Matthew Stevens, associate professor of ensembles and guitar, along with J.D. Allen, Caroline Davis, Carlos Henriquez, Brian Lynch, Allison Miller, Rufus Reid, Camille Thurman, and others. Over the next three years, Next Jazz Legacy will be guided by an advisory board that includes artists Gerald Clayton and Kris Davis, associate program director of creative development for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, and representatives from institutions such as Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, NPR, WBGO, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the New York Winter Jazz Festival.
Next Jazz Legacy unites leading artists of all genders in a program that highlights and responds to the immense inequities that have existed in jazz since its beginning, said Vanessa Reed, co-founder and president of Next Jazz Legacy and CEO of New Music USA. Feedback from the women and nonbinary musicians who were supported in our first year confirm that our package of financial support, mentoring, and cohort learning has generated unique opportunities, including a wealth of new connections that will support them long after the program has ended. I could not be more proud to continue this important work, and I am hugely grateful to the many inspirational musicians who have contributed as mentors, bandleaders, and advisors alongside our artistic director, Terri Lyne Carrington.
As the involvement of Carrington, a 2023 Grammy winner, attests, Next Jazz Legacy is supported by some of jazz's most acclaimed names. In 2022, the program arranged apprenticeships under distinguished jazz icons including esperanza spalding '05, Lizz Wright, Marcus Miller, Mary Halvorson, Tia Fuller, Linda May Han Oh, and Chris Potter.
In addition, Bobby McFerrin, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Brandon Ross, Bill Stewart, Kris Davis, and Jen Shyu, as well as the late Wayne Shorter, were brought in by Next Jazz Legacy to provide creative mentorship. Samara Joy, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist this year, led a seminar on best social media practices for young musicians.
Throughout 2022, awardees performed on prestigious stages at local and national jazz events throughout the country, including at Winter Jazzfest 2023, the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, and as part of a special concert produced by WBGO. The new cohort will make their live performance debut as a group at the Kennedy Center in May. They are also slated to perform at the DC Jazz Festival and Angel City Jazz Festival, with more events in the works throughout the year.
Each Next Jazz Legacy artist benefits from a comprehensive package designed to have a deep and lasting career impact. This includes a $10,000 grant, a one-year performance apprenticeship, a two-way mentorship program pairing them with artistic and business professionals, peer-learning cohorts led by Carrington, an online learning course from Berklee, and a variety of promotional opportunities to live showcases with national presenters.
The second class of Next Jazz Legacy artists spans a wide spectrum of genres, instruments, and trajectories, with personal experiences of confronting the challenges of sexism, socio-economic status, and opportunity.
Learn more about this year's cohort members below.
Camila Cortina Bello B.M. '21 M.M. '22: Piano Apprenticeship with Miguel Zen n '98; creative mentorship with Helen Sung
Through her music, Camila Cortina Bello pays homage to her Cuban heritage. Having reloca
