(SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2025)
sponsored by Dr. Shirley Murphy
Last heard at the 2022 New Mexico Jazz Festival with Ravi Coltrane’s Cosmic Music project, harpist Brandee Younger is known for her expressive interpretations of traditional harp repertoire, which infuses classical, jazz, soul, and funk influences pioneered by her predecessors and idols Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. The recipient of the 2024 NAACP Image Award for her award winning 2023 release, Brand New Life, Younger’s ability to feature the harp in genres of music where the instrument is often absent demonstrates her cross-reaching ability as a musician. The New York Times notes that she has “made a persuasive argument for the harp’s role in contemporary jazz.”
The Brandee Younger Trio performance is made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Western Jazz Presenters Network (WJPN). The WJPN is a coalition of jazz presenters in the western region of North America dedicated to mutual support through networking, collective block-booking of touring jazz artists, professional development and advancement of the full diversity of the jazz field. www.westernjazz.org