Delfeayo Marsalis & The Uptown Jazz Orchestra

Delfeayo Marsalis is a celebrated trombonist, composer, and producer who has also devoted his extensive career to music theatre and education. Like many members of the renowned Marsalis musical familyincluding his father Ellishe was born into a life centered on music. Throughout his career he has performed internationally alongside legendary jazz artists such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, and Slide Hampton, while also leading his own ensembles. At seventeen years old, he launched his professional journey as a producer and has since overseen more than one hundred and twenty recorded projects that have earned him one Grammy Award and numerous nominations. In 2008, he established the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, an engaging group dedicated to preserving essential jazz traditions such as riff playing, New Orleans polyphony, and improvised arrangements. He also founded the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, a nonprofit organization that empowers young people through musical theatre training. To date he has composed sixteen musicals rooted in history or designed to unite communities, written over ninety songs intended to introduce children to jazz via musical theatre, and conducted more than five thousand students nationwide with his Swinging with the Cool School jazz workshops. Marsalis holds two bachelors degrees from Berklee College of Musicone in music performance and one in productionand a masters degree in jazz performance from the University of Louisville. He also received a doctorate from New England College.