Nicholas Payton Announced as Chair of the Brass Department

Berklee College of Music is pleased to announce Nicholas Payton as chair of the Brass Department, a post he takes up this fall.

“We are looking forward to Nicholas Payton's contribution to the Berklee community by engaging faculty, supporting students, and developing curriculum,” says Sean K. Skeete, dean of the Professional Performance Division at Berklee. “I believe his experience as a world-class artist and educator will further advance Berklee's reputation as a leader in arts education.”

As a leading voice in American popular music, the Grammy Award–winning Payton is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger, essayist, and social activist who defies musical and artistic categories. All the while, he honors the tradition of what he terms “postmodern New Orleans music,” as well as the spirit of Black American Music (#BAM), of which he states, “There are no fields, per se. There are lineages.” His introduction of #BAM into the lexicon of popular music discourse landed him an entry in the New York Times' “The Decade in Jazz: 10 Definitive Moments” in 2019.

“It’s an honor to be appointed chair of brass at the preeminent modern music college of the world,” says Payton. “Having been a visiting artist here at Berklee the past few years, this is the next step in being able to assist in shaping what brass pedagogy looks like in our times.”

About Nicholas Payton

A child prodigy, Payton developed his musical abilities under the guidance of his parents: Walter, an acclaimed bassist, and Maria, a talented pianist and vocalist in New Orleans. The young musician began playing the trumpet at the age of four; by nine he was sitting in with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father; and by age 10, he was performing professionally. Before the age of 20, Payton was in high demand, recruited by fellow musicians such as Danny Barker, Clark Terry, Elvin Jones, Marcus Roberts, and many others.

In 1995, the Crescent City native released his first album From this Moment on Verve Records label, and two years later he received his first Grammy Award for the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton for Best Instrumental Solo. His second Grammy Award came in 2023 for his work with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice on New Standards Vol. 1, which won Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and featured Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, and Matthew Stevens.

With a career spanning more than three decades, Payton has released more than 20 recordings as a leader, pushing musical boundaries and showcasing a variety of contemporary and traditional styles, while displaying his ambidextrous ability to play both the trumpet and keyboard at the same time. He has collaborated with numerous mentors and contemporaries alike, ranging from Common and Cassandra Wilson '20H to Trey Anastasio, Jill Scott, and Allen Toussaint, to name a few. His most recent albums Smoke Sessions and The Couch Sessions were released in 2021 and 2022, respectively.