Artist: Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical during the same year. 

Among his siblings are Branford Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis, all three of whom are jazz musicians. 

He studied classical music at school and jazz at home with his father. After winning a music contest at fourteen, he performed Joseph Haydn's trumpet concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic. Two years later he performed Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Bach. At seventeen, he was one of the youngest musicians admitted to Tanglewood Music Center. 

In 1979, he moved to New York City to attend the  Juilliard School. He intended to pursue a career in classical music. However, in 1980, he toured Europe as a member of the Art Blakey big band, and after joining The Jazz Messengers, he changed his mind about and turned to jazz. In 1982, he recorded for the first time with Blakey and one year later he went on tour with Herbie Hancock.

After signing a contract with Columbia, he recorded his first solo album. In 1982, he established a quintet with his brother Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland,  Charnett Moffett, and Jeff "Tain" Watts. When Branford and Kenny Kirkland left three years later to record and tour with Sting, Marsalis formed another quartet, this time with Marcus Roberts on piano,  Robert Hurst on double bass, and Watts on drums. The band later expanded to include Wessell Anderson, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, Herlin Riley,  Reginald Veal, and Todd Williams. 

In 1987, Marsalis helped start the Classical Jazz summer concert series at Lincoln Center in New York City. The success of the series led to Jazz at Lincoln Center becoming a department at Lincoln Center,  then to becoming an independent entity in 1996, alongside organizations such as the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. Marsalis became artistic director of the center and the musical director of the band, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

In addition to Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has also worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a composer for modern classical music.