Guest ArtistsJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for Jazz through performance, education and advocacy. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and guest artists spanning genres and generations, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of performance, education and broadcast events each season in its home in New York City (Frederick P. Rose Hall, “The House of Swing”) and around the world, for people of all ages. Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Robert J. Appel, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center's programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus and many others.

Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra spends over a third of the year on tour. The big band performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington; Count Basie; Fletcher Henderson; Thelonious Monk; Mary Lou Williams; Billy Strayhorn; Dizzy Gillespie; Benny Goodman; Charles Mingus; Chick Corea; Oliver Nelson; and many others. Guest conductors have included Benny Carter; John Lewis; Jimmy Heath; Chico O'Farrill; Ray Santos; Paquito D’Rivera; Jon Faddis; Robert Sadin; David Berger; Gerald Wilson; and Loren Schoenberg. Jazz at Lincoln Center also regularly premieres works commissioned from a variety of composers including Benny Carter; Joe Henderson; Benny Golson; Jimmy Heath; Wayne Shorter; Sam Rivers; Joe Lovano; Chico O'Farrill; Freddie Hubbard; Charles McPherson; Marcus Roberts; Geri Allen; Eric Reed; Wallace Roney; and Christian McBride, as well as from current and former Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash, Victor Goines, Sherman Irby, Chris Crenshaw and Carlos Henriquez.

Over the last few years the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has performed collaborations with many of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic; the Russian National Orchestra; the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; the Boston, Chicago and London Symphony Orchestras; the Orchestra Esperimentale in São Paolo, Brazil; and others. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performed Marsalis’ symphony, Swing Symphony, with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin and with the New York Philharmonic in New York City in 2010 and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles in 2011. Swing Symphony is a Co-Commission by the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Barbican Centre.

Television broadcasts of Jazz at Lincoln Center programs have helped broaden the awareness of its unique efforts in the music. Concerts by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have aired in the U.S.; England; France; Spain; Germany; the Czech Republic; Portugal; Norway; Brazil; Argentina; Australia; China; Japan; Korea; and the Philippines. Jazz at Lincoln Center has appeared on several XM Satellite Radio live broadcasts and eight Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts carried by PBS stations nationwide, including a program which aired on October 18, 2004 during the grand opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s new home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and on September 17, 2005 during Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Higher Ground Benefit Concert benefitting the musicians, music industry-related enterprises, and other individuals and entities from the areas in Greater New Orleans who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and to provide other general hurricane relief.

In 2015 Jazz at Lincoln Center announced the launch of Blue Engine Records (www.jazz.org/blueengine), a new platform to make its vast archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences everywhere. The label is dedicated to releasing new studio and live recordings as well as archival recordings from past Jazz at Lincoln Center performances, and its first record— Live in Cuba, recorded on a historic 2010 trip to Havana by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—was released in October 2015. Big Band Holidays from the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis arrived in stores soon after. The following release was The Abyssinian Mass, a Wynton Marsalis composition featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Damien Sneed, 70-piece Gospel Choir Chorale Le Chateau, and special guest Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III. The JLCO’s latest two releases are Big Band Holidays, featuring special guest vocalists Cécile McLorin Salvant, Gregory Porter and Rene Marie, and The Music of John Lewis, featuring pianist Jon Batiste. To date, 14 other recordings featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis have been released and internationally distributed.

For more information on Jazz at Lincoln Center, please visit www.jazz.org.