Angélika Beener is the producer and host of Milestones: Celebrating the Culture, a podcast in partnership with WBGO that explores landmark albums, people, and events shaping music and culture. Her writing and commentary have appeared in TIDAL, The New York Times, NPR Music, DownBeat, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Huffington Post. She has also contributed liner notes, essays, and biographies to numerous acclaimed recording projects, including GRAMMY®-winning and nominated albums. Her work examines music at the intersections of race, gender, and generation and has been recognized by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the New York Association of Black Journalists. Angélika has moderated and participated in conversations presented by the Apollo Theater, Winter JazzFest, The Greene Space, and NJPAC, and has appeared on WGBH’s Under the Radar and NJ PBS’s Chat Box. She has emceed the Jazz Journalists Association Awards three times and co-hosted the Jazz Foundation of America’s Spotlight Jazz gala with Danny Glover. In 2022, she directed and co-produced Represent! A Night of Hip Hop, Jazz and Spoken Word at NJPAC with Christian McBride. As a DJ, she has performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and SummerStage. She recently produced Strata-East: The Legacy Begins, a documentary honoring the historic Black independent jazz label. Angélika is a New York City native, equity advocate, and proud mom.

Larry Blumenfeld has written regularly about jazz and Afro-Latin music for The Wall Street Journal since 2004. His work has also appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, NPR and Daily Beast, among other publications and websites. He has twice received the Jazz Journalists Association’s Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Writing, and he was the 2019 Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at Syracuse University. He founded and hosted the long-running series “Jazz and Social Justice,” at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem; is Editorial Director for Chamber Music America, and curates the Wells Fargo Jazz Series of Spoleto Festival USA and the Deer Isle Jazz Festival in Stonington, Maine. He lives, writes and plays basketball in Brooklyn, NY. 

Gail Boyd is President of Gail W. Boyd, P.C., an entertainment law firm, and Gail Boyd Artist Management LLC. She is a graduate of De Paul University and De Paul University School of Law. She was a founding partner in Boyd, Staton and Cave, the first African American female law firm in New York. Gail has been involved in entertainment law since 1976. She has been involved specifically in music with a specialty in jazz since 1979.  Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law where she teaches Entertainment Law. Gail presently serves on the Boards of the Pan African Center for Empowerment, the Martin Luther King/Coretta Scott King Memorial, The International Society of Jazz Composers and Arrangers, The Heart of Jazz Foundation. In October 2019, she was elected President of the North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents (NAPAMA) and served three terms. She is the former Vice Chair of the Entertainment, Sports, and Art Law Committee of the National Bar Association. She also chaired the Entertainment, Sports, Art Law Committee of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and served as a member of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Entertainment Law. She served on the Board of WBGO FM Radio in New York as well as the Noel Pointer Foundation. For nearly 20 years, she served as Chair of the Board of Brooklyn Legal Services. In 2017, Gail formed a Facebook Group entitled “Alternative Venues for Jazz”. When the pandemic of Covid-19 hit in 2020, Gail converted the page to a virtual meeting space, where musicians and industry professionals come on to the page to share their journey. The page now boasts nearly 11,000 members. As a result, Gail was named by the Jazz Journalists Association as a “Jazz Hero”, was named “A Woman of Influence” by WBGO Radio and was nominated for the Sidney R. Yates Award for Outstanding Advocacy on behalf of the Performing Arts by the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP). In 2020, Gail joined promoters Danny Melnick and Brice Rosenbloom and created the Jazz Coalition which funded 104 commissions to jazz artists to compose music inspired by the pandemic and later social and racial justice. She also joined The Blacksmiths which created individual and organizational pledges and resources for artists and arts organizations on topics of racial justice. Gail co-founded, along with her long-time friend Karen Kennedy, a consulting company entitled Vanguard Arts which serves arts organizations and artists. Current artists on Gail’s roster include: John Clayton, Don Braden, Mark Ruffin, Karrin Allyson, Angie Wells,  and together with Karen Kennedy, Soul Science Lab and Sounds of April and Randall. 

Terri Lyne Carrington is an NEA Jazz Master, Doris Duke Artist, and four-time Grammy award-winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She serves as Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, as well Artistic Director for both Next Jazz Legacy program (a collaboration with New Music USA) and the Carr Center in Detroit, MI. She has performed on more than 100 recordings over her 40-year career and has toured and recorded with luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Esperanza Spalding, and numerous others. Her artistry and commitment to education has earned her honorary doctorates from York University, Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music, and her curatorial work and music direction has been featured in many prestigious institutions internationally. The critically acclaimed 2019 release, Waiting Game, from Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science earned the esteemed Edison Award for music and a Grammy nomination. In fall of 2022, she authored two books, Three of a Kind (about the forming of the Allen Carrington Spalding trio) and the seminal songbook collection, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers. This book was accompanied by the album new STANDARDS vol.1 (Candid Records) which won the GRAMMY® Award for the best jazz instrumental album, and New Standards art installation, at Detroit’s Carr Center and the Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery, as part of the Jazz Without Patriarchy Project.

Chanel Enriquez is the Managing Director of Kuumbwa Jazz Society.

John Gilbreath recently retired as the executive director of Seattle's Earshot Jazz organization, where, since 1992, he produced well over 3,000 concerts and community-engagement programs, including 33 years of the annual Earshot Jazz Festival. Through a blessedly organic succession process, he has handed off artistic programming to former production lead, Halynn Blanchard. Gilbreath is a founding board member of the Western Jazz Presenters' Network, where he now serves as Executive Director. He also studies and teaches stone sculpture at Pratt Fine Arts in Seattle and is a long-time radio host in jazz and multi-genre music on both KBCS and KEXP in Seattle. 

Ludovico Granvassu is a New York–based jazz journalist, radio host, and concert curator whose work bridges the European and North American jazz communities. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of All About Jazz Italia and a longtime contributor to All About Jazz, where he has interviewed a wide range of influential artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Bill Frisell, Randy Weston, Dave Douglas, Hal Willner, Pino Palladino, Camille Bertault and many others. He also hosts Mondo Jazz, a weekly radio program on Radio Free Brooklyn, and previously hosted Jazz with an Accent on WHRB. His broadcasting and writing are informed by sustained engagement with the international jazz ecosystem, with particular attention to artistic exchange, mobility, and cultural context. In parallel with his editorial work, he curates concert series in New York—most notably the Rizzoli Music Aperitivo and the InterContinental Club Sessions—presenting leading European and U.S. artists. He has also organized tours in Europe and the United States, frequently supporting the debut  European tours and concerts for artists like Ben Allison, Ralph Alessi, Michael Blake, Erik Friedlander, Rachel Garniez, Susie Ibarra, Kneebody, Michael Leonhart, Metalwood, Billy Mohler, and Matt Munisteri, and US tours for Carlo Actis Dato, and Ernst Reijseger.

Christian McBride is a nine-time GRAMMY-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader. He is the Artistic Director of the the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. McBride is also a respected educator and advocate for youth, and serves as Artistic Director of Jazz House KiDS and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions. In addition to artistic directing and consistent touring with his ensembles, he hosts NPR's “Jazz Night in America” and "The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian" on SiriusXM. Whether behind the bass or away from it, Christian McBride is always part of the music. From jazz to R&B, and pop/rock and hip-hop/neo-soul to classical, he is a luminary with one hand ever reaching for new heights, and the other extended in fellowship—and perhaps the hint of a challenge—inviting us to join him.

Brenda Navarrete is one of the most prominent percussionists in contemporary Cuban music, renowned for her mastery of the batá drums and her ability to fuse Afro-Cuban tradition with jazz, rumba, and global sounds. A graduate of the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory, she has been part of projects such as Alafia, Obiní Batá, and Interactivo, bringing Afro-Cuban percussion to international stages. Her album Mi Mundo marked a milestone in her career, honoring Yoruba spirituality and expanding her music to audiences in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, Colombia, the United States, and France. She has collaborated with artists such as Mista Savona, Lutan Fyah, Prince Alla, France Nooks, I-Maali, Guts, David Walters, Havana Meets Kingston, Chucho Valdés, Paquito D’Rivera, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Aymee Nuviola,  Melvis Santa, Emily Estefan, Yissy García, La Dame Blanche, Ibrahim Maalouf, Pedrito Martínez, Isaac Delgado, Osaín del Monte, Wampi, Alfredo Rodríguez, and Monsieur Periné,   Harold López-Nussa, and Hilario Durán, and has shared the stage with Jon Batiste, Cimafunk. Her talent has been recognized in major media outlets such as Billboard, The New Yorker, and she has appeared on BBC, NPR, CNN en Español. She won the National Fiesta del Tambor Competition  and has received recognition at international jazz and World Music festivals. In 2025 Brenda became a Next Jazz Legacy Awardee, mentored by Terri Lynn Carrington. Standing out as one of the few women to master the batá drums at a professional level, Brenda Navarrete represents the evolution of Afro-Cuban percussion worldwide, establishing herself as an influential artist in and beyond Cuba.

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.

Drew Tucker is a dynamic musician, educator, speaker, and arts administrator who blends his passion for the arts with a commitment to advocacy. As a trailblazer in the modern vibraphone movement, Drew reimagines the instrument by merging soul, funk, jazz, and hip-hop, creating a sound that is both innovative and rooted in tradition. His artistry has brought him to the stage with a diverse array of musicians, including Cory Wong, Victor Wooten, Shaun Martin, Stefon Harris, and Norah Jones. His contributions have earned him prestigious endorsements and the title of “Cultural Ambassador” from the U.S. Department of State. Drew’s global impact is evident in his extensive tours across the U.S., South and Central America, Europe, and Asia, where he has captivated audiences with his vibrant performances. He co-founded MalletLab, a summer music intensive where he mentored over 50 students annually, collaborating with the world's top educators to advance mallet percussion. In addition to his performance and educational roles, Drew is committed to community development through the arts. He has played a key role in establishing and revitalizing arts centers in underserved areas, including Arts Garage and Old School Square in Delray Beach, Florida. His dedication to fostering artistic expression and accessibility is evident in his work. Currently, Drew serves as Director of the Jazz Road program for South Arts, tours with his band ‘The New Standard,’ serves on the Mallet Committee for the Percussive Arts Society, and continues to inspire as a guest clinician, speaker, and Cultural Ambassador.