Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is a world-renowned trumpeter and composer. A true jazz legend, he is the world’s first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop and modern jazz. He also has composed a violin concerto and four symphonies to introduce new rhythms to the classical music canon. Born in New Orleans in 1961, Mr. Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12; entered The Juilliard School at age 17; and then joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and has since recorded more than 80 jazz and classical recordings, which have sold over seven million copies worldwide and won three Gold Records. Mr. Marsalis has been awarded nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year and repeated that feat in 1984. In 1997 Mr. Marsalis became the first jazz musician ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his oratorio Blood On The Fields. He has received honorary doctorates from dozens of universities and colleges and has written six books. Marsalis helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, the first education, performance and broadcast facility devoted to jazz that opened in October 2004. (more...)