2024 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert

FREE! Celebrate the esteemed recipients of the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship: virtuoso vocalist/pianist Amina Claudine Myers, prolific saxophonist Gary Bartz, Grammy-winning trumpet player Terence Blanchard, and Artistic Director of the DC Jazz Festival Willard Jenkins. This concert event features performances by 2024 recipients, powerful tributes, special guest artists, and more.

Watch the livestream here at Kennedy-Center.org or arts.gov.

All tickets for this event have been claimed. Please check back for additional availability. Standby tickets may be available day-of—see below for details. Need to return your tickets? Click here.

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Jazz
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Program

FREE! Join us for a concert honoring the esteemed recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship, our nation’s highest honor in jazz. The 2024 NEA Jazz Masters include virtuoso vocalist and pianist Amina Claudine Myers, prolific saxophonist Gary Bartz, Grammy-winning trumpet player and composer Terence Blanchard, and writer and Artistic Director of the DC Jazz Festival Willard Jenkins.

Hosted by NPR Music’s Felix Contreras, the concert will feature performances by 2024 NEA Jazz Masters Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, and Amina Claudine Myers, remarks by the honorees, and video tributes to their lives and careers.

Joining Bartz will be members of his band—Paul Bollenback, James King, Kassa Overall, and Marc Cary. Blanchard will perform with the E-Collective: Charles Altura, Taylor Eigsti, David Ginyard, and Jaylen Petinaud. Myers will perform with her trio made up of Thurman Barker and Jerome Harris. In honor of Willard Jenkins, the African Rhythms Alumni Quintet will perform, featuring Alex Blake, T.K. Blue, Chief Baba Neil Clarke, Ku-umba Frank Lacy, and Sharp Radway.

Lakecia Benjamin, Katie Ernst, Camille Gainer, REDWOOD, and Charenée Wade close the concert with a tribute to jazz icon Duke Ellington, who was born 125 years ago in Washington, D.C.

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in jazz. Each year since 1982, the program has elevated to its ranks a select number of living legends who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz. For more information, read a .

All tickets for this event have been claimed—please check back for additional availability. Standby tickets may be available day-of at the Satellite Box Office at Millenium Stage North on a first-come first-served basis starting at 7:15 p.m., with a standby line forming at 5:30 p.m.

Need to return your tickets? Click here.

Please Note: This is a reservation and not a ticket. There is a 2-Ticket Limit per patron for this show. Reservation confirmations should be printed at home and presented at the Kennedy Center’s Satellite Box Office at Millenium Stage North in exchange for tickets on April 13th, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

This event will be livestreamed on this page (see embedded video above) and on

: On Thursday, April 11, 2024 from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., 2024 NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins will join Howard University students for a discussion and Q&A titled “Music Careers, Beyond the Bandstand.” This will take place at Howard University’s Childers Recital Hall, 2455 6th Street NW, Washington, DC 20059. The public is invited to observe and no registration is necessary (seating is first-come, first-served).
: On Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 10:30 a.m., NPR will host a listening party at their headquarters at 1111 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20002.

DC Jazz Festival President and CEO Sunny Sumter will be in conversation with the 2024 NEA Jazz Masters, using music from their careers to tell the stories of their lives.

This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Reserve your free tickets.

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: Join us for FREE a film screening in the Justice Forum at the REACH. 120 Wooster Street documents artist Frederick J. Brownn’s Soho loft studio in New York in the 1960s/70s, which served as a gathering place for artists, musicians, writers, dancers and other creative personalities. Featuring a post-screening panel with artists Bentley Brown and NEA Jazz Master Terence Blanchard.

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