Wynton Marsalis, A Brief Biography

Born October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, the second of six sons of Dolores and Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis began studying trumpet seriously at age twelve. During high school he performed in local marching bands, jazz bands, funk bands, and classical orchestras, and at age eighteen he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School of Music. In the summer of 1980, he became a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and that same year signed with Columbia Records. Since his self-titled debut was released in 1982, Marsalis' numerous jazz and classical recordings for Columbia and Sony Classical have sold nearly five million copies worldwide. He has taken his jazz groups to thirty countries on six continents, averaging more than 120 concerts per year for many of the past sixteen years.

Marsalis serves as artistic director for the internationally recognised Jazz at Lincoln Center program, which he co-founded in 1987. Under his leadership, the jazz department earned the distinction of being named Lincoln Center's first new constituent organisation since 1969. Several commissioned works for the program are among his most recent successes as a composer. The oratorio Blood on the Fields, written in 1994, was named one of the top ten music highlights of the year by Time magazine. The New York Times Magazine said the work "marked the symbolic moment when the full heritage of the line, Ellington through Mingus, was extended into the present. It also reflects a full awareness of Copland and Stravinsky."

Education continues to be a top priority for Marsalis. One of the most successful aspects of the Jazz at Lincoln Center program has been Marsalis' Jazz for Young People series, which has become a favourite of New York audiences. Throughout the year, Wynton schedules meetings with students wherever he is, and while on the road with his bands he regularly conducts master classes in local schools. The 1996 Peabody Award he won for Marsalis on Music also recognised his informative twenty-six-part National Public Radio series, Making the Music, which was based on Jazz for Young People.

Marsalis has been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of France and the Edison Award of the Netherlands, and was elected an honorary member of England's Royal Academy of Music. In recognition of the many hours he has contributed to music education, community organisations, and charities, he has been given keys to cities across the country, all types of community service awards, and a congressional citation. In May of 1997 he received honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University and Amherst College; these honours will be added to the list of colleges and universities that have recognised him, including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Brandeis, the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Miami. He was profiled by 60 Minutes in December 1995. He has been the subject of cover stories for Life magazine, Time magazine, Parade, the Sunday New York Times Magazine, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Calendar, London Times magazine and Esquire (UK), as well as numerous appearances on the covers of Jazz Times, Downbeat, and Jazziz. In 1996, Time magazine named him among America's twenty five most influential people.

Recently, Wynton Marsalis has been touring North America. He is also the current conductor with the "Live at Lincoln Center" jazz band.