A complete list of 2025 Biographies will be listed in December 2024.

Lakecia Benjamin 3x Grammy® Nominated and Voted by 2020 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, charismatic and dynamic saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin fuses traditional conceptions of Jazz, HipHop, and Soul. In addition to touring with her own band both domestically and internationally in 2023, Lakecia performed in more than 20 cities with the Monterey Jazz Festival All Stars, sharing the front line with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling and the Christian Sands Trio.  She served as the Guest Artistic Director for the Burlington Jazz Festival, presiding over one of the largest audiences in their history.  She served as Artistic Director for the John and Alice Coltrane Jazz Festival in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania and was named Artist in Residence at the 66th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival.  Recently she was named “Jazz Scholar” by the Library of Congress for 2023. Lakecia’s latest CD “Phoenix” produced by Terri Lyne Carrington, garnered 7 magazine covers and a New York Times cover of the Arts and Leisure Section.  The album features Dianne Reeves, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, Patrice Rushen, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Wayne Shorter.   A streetwise New York City native born and raised in Washington Heights; Lakecia Benjamin first picked up the saxophone at Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. From there she graduated from the renowned jazz program at New York’s New School University.

Dee Dee Bridgewater
Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. A multi-hyphenate polymath and fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. In April 2017, she was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In December 2017, Bridgewater was presented with the ASCAP Foundation Champions award acknowledging her charitable contributions. In 2018, Bridgewater received the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award. 2019 brought her induction in the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in recognition of her contributions to music and in celebration of her latest CD, Memphis, Yes...I'm Ready. That same year, Bridgewater launched The Woodshed Network, a non-profit partnership with 651 Arts created to mentor, connect, support, and educate women in Jazz. Bridgewater serves as Artistic Director with lead support by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. 2020 found Dee Dee hosting the first virtual NEA Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert. Following the success of the event, in 2021, she again hosted the 2021 Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert, this time alongside venerable actor Delroy Lindo. In 2022, Lindo again joined Bridgewater to host the inaugural Jazz Music Awards. In 2023, Bridgewater oversaw the 4th year of The Woodshed Network program and can be found touring worldwide with her Dee Dee Bridgewater Big Band, Quartet, and in duo with Grammy-winning pianist Bill Charlap.

Stefon Harris Stefon Harris is a Grammy-nominated jazz vibraphonist, educator, app developer, and thought leader. He has been heralded as “one of the most important artists in jazz” (Los Angeles Times) and is a recipient of the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award and the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center. He has been named Best Mallet Player eight times by the Jazz Journalist Association and Best Vibes Player in DownBeat Magazine’s Critics Poll. Harris currently tours with his Grammy-nominated band, Blackout, and has released eleven albums as a leader. He has also recorded and performed with The Classical Jazz Quartet, Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Lewis Nash, the SFJAZZ Collective, Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall, Max Roach, Chaka Khan, Kurt Elling, Buster Williams, Dianne Reeves, Common, and Pablo Zeigler. Along with performing, Harris has taught at universities throughout the world, led curriculum development at the Brubeck Institute, served as a part of the jazz faculty at New York University for a decade, and formerly served as the Associate Dean and Director of Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music. He is currently Artistic Director of Jazz Education at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and is an Associate Professor of Music at Rutgers University – Newark. As a thought leader, Harris leads transformative presentations on corporate leadership and team empowerment for Fortune 100 companies using jazz as a metaphor. His 2012 TED Talk, “There Are No Mistakes on the Bandstand,” has gained nearly 900,000 views. In 2013, he co-founded The Melodic Progression Institute (MPI) and created an ear training app called Harmony Cloud which is widely used by musicians across multiple genres.

Brad Stone Dr. Bradley M. (“Brad”) Stone has been a jazz radio programmer and host for over 45 years. He was actively involved at several non-commercial (university and community) radio stations, including KSJS, KKUP, KUCI and WQAX. He has worn many hats, as music director, producer, faculty advisor and DJ/show host – but his real passion and expertise has been in jazz music programming. He is a multiple national award winner for his work as a music director, including a 10-time winner of national “Jazz Programmer of the Year” awards at the annual JazzWeek Summit and Gavin Seminars (including a 3-time winner of the Bobby Jackson Award for Internet Radio Programming). He was also the recipient of the prestigious “Duke DuBois Humanitarian Award” by JazzWeek in 2008, a national award for lifetime achievement and service to the jazz and jazz radio communities. He has served as an invited panelist, moderator and organizer at many jazz conventions over the years, including the JazzWeek Summit, the Gavin Seminar, the International Association for Jazz Education’s (IAJE) Annual International Conference, and the JazzConnect, Jazz Times and Jazz Improv conferences. Most recently he has been a regular annual producer, moderator and host of the “Jazz Jukebox Jury” panels at the annual Jazz Congress meetings in New York. Having grown up in Chicago, Stone believes that jazz and the blues are “in his blood” from birth. Stone now hosts “The Creative Source” (featuring new jazz releases) on the SoulandJazz.com internet platform.

Sunny Sumter Sunny Sumter is President and CEO of the DC Jazz Festival, a nonprofit service organization established in 2004 to present jazz-related cultural and educational programs in the nation’s capital. Its’ signature programs are the annual DC JazzFest, DC Jazz Festival Education, and the Charles Fishman Embassy Series. DC Jazz Festival is the recipient of the DC Mayor’s Art Award for Excellence in Creative Industries. Sumter has been a thought leader on jazz with the U.S. Department of State, DC Deputy Mayor’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, Jazz Philadelphia Summit, and Jazz Congress, among others. Prior to her tenure at DC Jazz Festival, Sumter held management/director positions with the Aspen Institute, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Smithsonian Institution, and Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was awarded the Aspen Institute’s Staff Achievement Award for Excellence. Sumter earned her bachelor’s degree in music business from Howard University where she minored in jazz studies/voice. She is a recipient of a Howard University Benny Golson Award, the Sitar Arts Center Visionary Award, the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Heroes Award, a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, and a Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. She was host of Jazz Central on the BET network. As a professional vocalist, Sumter has performed at some of the finest festivals, concert venues, and clubs in the U.S. and internationally. She currently serves on the boards of the HBCU-Jazz Education Initiative, the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, and the North American Performing Art Managers and Agents. She is a member of Americans for the Arts, National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences; and served as a program director member of the National Collaboration for Youth. Sumter is a Fellow graduate of the prestigious DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland Business School; and is one of the “exceptional leaders” selected for National Arts Strategies’ celebrated Chief Executive Program.