Next Jazz Legacy Announces 2023 Cohort of Women and Nonbinary Awardees

Next Jazz Legacy is proud to announce the seven emerging women and nonbinary jazz musicians who comprise its 2023 cohort of awardees. The trailblazing program was created by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice to address gender and racial inequities by providing mentorship and professional development opportunities to those who have been underrepresented in jazz. Next Jazz Legacy receives major funding from the Mellon Foundation and support from Joe and Nancy Walker.

Combining individual and group learning opportunities with a comprehensive support package designed to deliver deep impacts on each candidate’s career, Next Jazz Legacy champions those whose access to resources has been limited. With gender and racial justice as guiding principles, this group of Next Jazz Legacy awardees was chosen through an open-call process and a meticulous, months-long review by a distinguished and diverse panel of jazz luminaries, chaired by Terri Lyne Carrington, NEA Jazz Master and founder and artistic director of the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Once the awardees were selected, Carrington and the Next Jazz Legacy team worked closely with each of the seven musicians to match them with a pair of master bandleaders for a yearlong performance apprenticeship, as well as an additional creative mentorship, both aligned with the awardees’ unique interests.

“I’m very pleased with our selections for this year’s Next Jazz Legacy awardees,” said Carrington. “We strive to amplify women and nonbinary musicians’ voices and address the need for all musicians, practitioners, and professionals in jazz to contribute to a more equitable jazz future. I am both hopeful and confident that jazz is developing progressively toward this end. This is why this program is exciting and the future possibilities of the sound of jazz is exciting as well.”

Alongside Carrington, the selection committee for the 2023 Next Jazz Legacy cohort included, from Berklee, Tanya Darby, chair of the Brass Department, and Matthew Stevens, associate professor of ensembles and guitar, along with J.D. Allen, Caroline Davis, Carlos Henriquez, Brian Lynch, Allison Miller, Rufus Reid, Camille Thurman, and others. Over the next three years, Next Jazz Legacy will be guided by an advisory board that includes artists Gerald Clayton and Kris Davis, associate program director of creative development for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, and representatives from institutions such as Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, NPR, WBGO, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the New York Winter Jazz Festival. 

“Next Jazz Legacy unites leading artists of all genders in a program that highlights and responds to the immense inequities that have existed in jazz since its beginning,” said Vanessa Reed, president and CEO of New Music USA. “Feedback from the women and nonbinary musicians who were supported in our first year confirm that our package of financial support, mentoring, and cohort learning has generated unique opportunities, including a wealth of new connections that will support them long after the program has ended. I could not be more proud to continue this important work, and I am hugely grateful to the many inspirational musicians who have contributed as mentors, bandleaders, and advisors alongside our artistic director, Terri Lyne Carrington.”

As the involvement of Carrington, a 2023 Grammy winner, attests, Next Jazz Legacy is supported by some of jazz’s most acclaimed names. In 2022, the program arranged apprenticeships under distinguished jazz icons including esperanza spalding ’05, Lizz Wright, Marcus Miller, Mary Halvorson, Tia Fuller, Linda May Han Oh, and Chris Potter.

In addition, Bobby McFerrin, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Brandon Ross, Bill Stewart, Kris Davis, and Jen Shyu, as well as the late Wayne Shorter, were brought in by Next Jazz Legacy to provide creative mentorship. Samara Joy, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist this year, led a seminar on best social media practices for young musicians. 

Throughout 2022, awardees performed on prestigious stages at local and national jazz events throughout the country, including at Winter Jazzfest 2023, the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, and as part of a special concert produced by WBGO. The new cohort will make their live performance debut as a group at the Kennedy Center in May. They are also slated to perform at the DC Jazz Festival and Angel City Jazz Festival, with more events in the works throughout the year. 

Each Next Jazz Legacy artist benefits from a comprehensive package designed to have a deep and lasting career impact. This includes a $10,000 grant, a one-year performance apprenticeship, a two-way mentorship program pairing them with artistic and business professionals, peer-learning cohorts led by Carrington, an online learning course from Berklee, and a variety of promotional opportunities to live showcases with national presenters.

The second class of Next Jazz Legacy artists spans a wide spectrum of genres, instruments, and trajectories, with personal experiences of confronting the challenges of sexism, socio-economic status, and opportunity.

Learn more about this year’s cohort members below.  

Camila Cortina Bello B.M. ’21 M.M. ’22: Piano

Apprenticeship with Miguel Zenón ’98; creative mentorship with Helen Sung

Through her music, Camila Cortina Bello pays homage to her Cuban heritage. Having relocated to Boston from Havana, she continues to reimagine the sounds and rhythms of her Cuban roots through the lens of jazz, classical, and world music. She considers herself an advocate for women in jazz and enjoys promoting other female composers’ work in her concerts. She received first prize in Cuba’s Jo Jazz Contest in 2007, the Duke Ellington Award in 2020, and the Matt Marvuglio Endowed Scholarship in 2022.

Milena Casado B.M. ’20 M.M. ’22: Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Apprenticeship with Nicholas Payton; creative mentorship with Meshell Ndegeocello

Originally from Spain and currently based in New York, Milena Casado is a composer, flugelhorn, and trumpet player who has worked with Terri Lyne Carrington, Kenny Werner, Kris Davis, Melissa Aldana, Jorge Rossy, Ben Street, George Garzone, and Francisco Mela. She has performed at notable venues and festivals around the world, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and Marciac Jazz Festival, among others. Casado is currently composing original music for her trio, quartet, sextet, and nonet.

Liany Mateo M.M. ’21: Bass

Apprenticeship with Regina Carter; creative mentorship with Christian McBride

Liany Mateo has performed and taught music in North America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Influenced by hard-hitting and straight-ahead swing, Mateo has played all over New York City, most recently in Arturo O’Farrill’s Grammy-winning Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. She has performed with Geoffrey Keezer, Fay Victor, and Brandee Younger, and has been mentored by Rodney Whitaker and Linda May Han Oh. 

Anaïs Maviel: Voice

Apprenticeship with Craig Taborn; creative mentorship with Nicole Mitchell

Anäis Maviel is a Harlem-based vocalist and composer whose music shows traditional and experimental musical knowledge. Her music navigates song, choral, and instrumental music, with a strong connection to cosmologies of sound and speech rooted in oral traditions such as mantra and ring shout. She has conducted scholarly research on music and utopia in Black American music and interviewed master musicians on the subject. She has collaborated with William Parker, Meshell Ndegeocello, Pauline Kim Harris, Alarm will Sound, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Stefani Jemison, among others. 

Tatiana LadyMay Mayfield: Voice

Apprenticeship with Brandee Younger; creative mentorship with Patrice Rushen

From the age of 13, Tatiana Mayfield has been singing and performing jazz music at festivals all across the United States and around the world. Some highlights of her career include performing with the legendary Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, having a number one song on U.K. Soul Chart, and being awarded second place in the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocals Competition at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. As an educator, Mayfield is an adjunct instructor of jazz voice for the University of North Texas, and an adjunct professor of commercial voice at Cedar Valley College in Lancaster, Texas.

Neta Raanan B.M. ’15 M.M. ’16: Saxophone

Apprenticeship with Nasheet Waits; creative mentorship with Moor Mother

Neta Raanan is a tenor saxophonist and composer who grew up in New Jersey and found her love for music as a teenager in the record stores of New York, drawn to the mysterious black and white photos of Bird and Dizzy, Thelonious Monk, and Lester Young perched on the walls. Since receiving her master’s degree in music, she has collaborated with artists from genres ranging from jazz and avant garde to folk. She has also worked with hip-hop artists, singer-songwriters, and various mixed medium productions.

Anisha Rush: Saxophone

Apprenticeship with Makaya McCraven; creative mentorship with Tia Fuller

Anisha Rush, born and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, began playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and immediately developed an interest in jazz and gospel music. She currently performs as bandleader of the Anisha Rush Quartet. She has also played alongside Ron Miles, Dawn Clement, Shane Endsley, Art Lande, Greg Gisbert, and Annie Booth, and is an educator and performer in the Denver music scene.