Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis (Music Director, Trumpet) is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC). Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, he is the son of renowned jazz pianist and music educator, Ellis Marsalis, Jr. Marsalis was gifted his first trumpet at age six by Al Hirt; soon thereafter, he began playing in New Orleans’ famed Fairview Baptist Church Band led by banjoist Danny Barker. However, it wasn’t until he turned twelve that Marsalis began to formally train on the trumpet and perform in bands throughout the city, from the New Orleans Philharmonic and New Orleans Youth Orchestra to funk bands, concert bands, and small jazz ensembles. As a teenager, his passion for music rapidly escalated.

In 1979, at the age of seventeen, Marsalis moved to New York City to study classical trumpet at The Juilliard School. Yet he quickly entrenched himself in New York’s effervescent jazz scene, launching his career with the legendary Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. At just nineteen, Marsalis hit the road with his own band—he has been touring the world ever since. From 1981 to the time of this writing, he has performed 5,328 concerts in 856 distinct cities and 66 countries around the world.

Marsalis made his recording debut in 1982 and has since recorded over 110 jazz and classical albums, four alternative records, and released five DVDs. Marsalis is the winner of nine GRAMMY Awards, and his jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He remains the only musician to win a GRAMMY Award in two categories—jazz and classical— during the same year (1983, 1984).

Marsalis has solidified himself as an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, and advocate of American culture. As a composer, his body of work includes over 600 original songs, 11 dance scores, 13 suites, 4 symphonies, 2 chamber pieces, 2 string quartets, a jazz oratorio, a fanfare, and concertos for violin, tuba, trumpet, and most recently, for orchestra. Included in this rich body of compositions is a multitude of works written specifically to feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO): The Democracy! Suite (2021); The Ever Fonky Lowdown (2020); The Jungle- Symphony No. 4 (2016); Swing Symphony- Symphony No. 3 (2010); The Abyssinian Mass (2008); Congo Square (2006); Suite for Human Nature (2004); All Rise- Symphony No. 1 (1999). To date, Marsalis has released 29 full-length albums and nine singles with the JLCO on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s in-house label, Blue Engine Records.

Marsalis is also a globally respected teacher and spokesperson for music education. He led the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home–Frederick P. Rose Hall–the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted specifically to jazz. At JALC, Marsalis spearheads educational programs for students of all ages, including Jazz for Young People™ concerts and the annual Essentially Ellington jazz band competition, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025. Marsalis is the Founding Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, and President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.

Marsalis has produced several educational series for public broadcast. He was the writer and host of the video series Marsalis on Music, the radio series Making the Music, and the weekly conversation series Skain’s Domain. He has written and co-written 10 books, including two children’s books: Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! and Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits. Between 2011 and 2014, he delivered six groundbreaking lectures at Harvard University entitled Hidden in Plain View: Meanings in American Music. And in 2023, he delivered the highly esteemed Nexus Lecture in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Marsalis was appointed Messenger of Peace by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001 and awarded The National Medal of Arts (2005), The National Medal of Humanities (2016), and the Praemium Imperiale for Music from the Japan Art Association (2023)—Japan’s highest honor for the arts. In December 2021, Marsalis and JALC were awarded the Key to New York City by Mayor Bill de Blasio. Marsalis has received honorary doctorates from 44 top universities around the world, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans.

Wynton Marsalis’ core beliefs and foundation for living are based on the principles of jazz. He promotes individual creativity (improvisation), collective cooperation (swing), gratitude and good manners (sophistication), and facing adversity with persistent optimism (the blues).