Cécile McLorin Salvant is a composer, singer, and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described Salvant as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and  full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings.” Salvant has developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. Salvant is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor. Salvant will be joined on stage by Aaron Birnbaum (piano), Yasushi Nakamura (bass), and Savannah Harris (drums).

Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010. She has received three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Window,” “Dreams and Daggers,” and “For One To Love,” and was nominated for the award in 2014 for her album “WomanChild.” In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur Fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Nonesuch Records released 2x Grammy Nominated “Ghost Song” in March 2022, and in 2023 the highly anticipated, 2x Grammy Nominated follow-up – “Mélusine,” an album mostly sung in French, along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, of a French mother and Haitian father, she started classical piano studies at 5, sang in a children’s choir at 8, 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.

Salvant’s latest work, Ogresse, is a musical fable in the form of a cantata that blends genres (folk, baroque, jazz, country). Salvant wrote the story, lyrics, and music. It is arranged by Darcy James Argue for a thirteen-piece orchestra of multi-instrumentalists. Ogresse, both a biomythography and an homage to the Erzulie (as painted by Gerard Fortune) and Sara Baartman, explores fetishism, hunger, diaspora, cycles of appropriation, lies, othering, and ecology. It is in development to become an animated feature-length film, which Salvant will direct.

Salvant makes large-scale textile drawings. Her visual art can now be found at the Picture Room in Brooklyn, NY.

Part of the Jazz, Director’s Choice 9, or Mix 4 subscription packages (15%-20% off and complimentary parking). New subscriptions go on sale June 14. Already an existing subscriber? Renew your Jazz or Director’s Choice 9 subscription here and Mix 4 here. Individual tickets will be available for purchase on Friday, June 28.