Cecile McLorin Salvant released her first album Cécile & the Jean-François Bonnel Paris Quintet in 2010. Soon thereafter, at the age of 21, she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for vocalists. She has evolved since then from a darling of jazz critics and fans into to a multi-Grammy Award-winner and a dazzling, accomplished artist. In 2014, Salvant’s second album, WomanChild, was nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album. The album featured original compositions, as well as some tracks dating to the 19th century. For One to Love came next, winning the Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2015. Its songs focus attention on strong women and independence, with five original works and other jazz standards. Her two most recent albums, Dreams and Daggers and The Window, also both won the Grammy for Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Salvant has toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, whose music director Wynton Marsalis was quoted in a 2017 New Yorker article saying of Salvant: "You get a singer like this once in a generation or two." She has performed at jazz venues and festivals, including Ronnie Scott’s, Newport Jazz Festival, and the Village Vanguard. Born and raised in Miami to a French mother and Haitian father, Salvant started classical piano studies at five, sang in a children’s choir at eight, and started classical voice lessons as a teenager. Salvant received a Bachelor’s in French law from the Université Pierre-Mendes France in Grenoble, while also studying baroque music and jazz at the Darius Milhaud Music Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Sullivan Fortner is recognized for his virtuosic technique and captivating performances and is lauded as one of the top jazz pianists of his generation. He is the winner of three prestigious awards: a Leonor Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2015 Cole Porter Fellowship from the American Pianists Association, and the 2016 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. The Sullivan Fortner Trio has performed on many of the world’s most prestigious stages, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Discover Jazz Festival, Tri-C Jazz Festival, Jazz Standard, and the Gillmore Keyboard Festival. Fortner has played with other leading musicians around the world, such as Dianne Reeves, Roy Hargrove, Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, John Scofield, Fred Hersch, and Sean Jones, among others. Fortner’s foray into music education led him to teach Master classes at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NoCCA). A native of New Orleans, Fortner began playing the piano at the age of seven and was hailed a virtuoso before he was out of high school. He has a Bachelor’s in Jazz Studies from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music.

Keita Ogawa is originally from Nagasaki, Japan. He is a two-time Grammy Award-nominee and a Grammy Award-winner and one of the most versatile and sought-after percussionists and drummers in New York City. He started his music career on a drum set at the age of 15. After performing regularly in Tokyo for several years, he decided to pursue his musical studies overseas. He was accepted into the prestigious Berklee College of Music in the fall of 2005 where he studied with legendary musicians and educators Manuel “Egui” Castrillo, Jamey Haddad, Tito De Gracia, David Rosado, and Mark Walker. Since his arrival in America, Ogawa has worked with some of the biggest names in modern music, including Yo-Yo Ma, Assad Brothers, Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Romero Lubambo, Clarice Assad, Jaques Morelenbaum, Osvaldo Golijov, Les Nubians, Charlie Hunter, Benny Green, Eric Harland, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and more. Currently, he works on several projects, including Snarky Puppy, Bokanté, Banda Magda, Bokantè, Charlie Hunter, JSquad, Camila Meza, and the Nectar Orchestra, and of course, Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Marvin J. Sewell is a guitarist and composer who learned to play the guitar by hanging out with many Chicago basement bands, exploring Blues, Gospel, Soul, Rock, and Fusion. He played with many famous Chicago musicians such as Von Freeman, Ramsey Lewis, and Billy Branch. Sewell studied Composition at Roosevelt University. Sewell played in Hannibal Peterson’s composition African Portraits, an opera in which he played blues slide guitar in collaboration with the St. Louis Symphony, New Music Symphony, and the Westchester Symphony Orchestra. Marvin has performed and recorded with Jack DeJohnette, Diedre Murray, Gary Thomas, David Sanborn, and a host of many other esteemed musicians. In 1995, he began playing with Cassandra Wilson with whom he played a variety of string instruments for six years. On Cassandra Wilson’s CD, Traveling Miles, Marvin co-wrote the song, Right Here, Right Now with Cassandra. Sewell toured with Sekou Sandiata along with Ani Difranco. Today, Sewell spends most of his time writing music for his own band, The Marvin Sewell Group, and is preparing a debut recording under his own name.

Alexa Tarantino is an award-winning jazz saxophonist who often doubles on other woodwind instruments including the flute, which she will play for this concert. In addition, Tarantino is an accomplished composer and educator. She leads the Alexa Tarantino Quartet and has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles, including the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Generation Y and Big Band, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra. Firefly, Alexa’s third record for Posi-Tone Records released in April 2021, hit number six on the JazzWeek charts. Her previous album, Clarity, peaked at number nine on the JazzWeek charts and landed at number 54 for JazzWeek’s “Top 100 records of 2020.” Tarantino is currently on the faculty for Jazz at Lincoln Center's Youth Programs and represents the organization as a Clinician and Educator for various schools, festivals, and workshops. She holds a Master’s in Jazz Studies from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Saxophone Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music.