Wynton Marsalis is leaving Jazz at Lincoln Center after more than 30 years as its artistic and managing director.
The organization announced Marsalis’ departure today (January 27), confirming that the influential musician, composer, and bandleader will stay on as artistic director through 2027, then serve in an advisory role through June 2028. He will remain on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s board as a founder “in perpetuity,” and will continue to perform with the ensemble on occasion.
Marsalis co-founded Jazz at Lincoln Center as a summer concert series in 1987, and oversaw the organization’s move to a dedicated venue, Frederick P. Rose Hall, in 2004. During his tenure, he also helped expand its educational offerings, which include the Essentially Ellington high school band competition and the Let Freedom Swing program for elementary school students. Outside his work with Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has released over 110 jazz and classical albums and won nine Grammy Awards. In 1997, his oratorio Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Ahead of Marsalis’ departure, Jazz at Lincoln Center has established two committees to focus on the transition. One will work with him to identify “the next generation of artistic leadership,” and another will spearhead the search for a new executive director, who will replace Greg Scholl when he leaves this June.
In a statement, Marsalis said: “When we established Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1987, our goal was to build an enduring jazz institution that would both entertain and educate by exposing multi-generational audiences to an often-overlooked aspect of American culture, and I am proud of the tremendous progress we’ve made. Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have always been my main artistic priority as a musician and a citizen.”
“It is time for new leadership to take the institution to even higher ground,” he concluded. “We are rich in emerging, extremely talented, capable, and inspired musicians and advocates. I’m very confident about the future.”
