Introducing Wynton Marsalis

Editor’s Note: This account is written in a fictionalized first-person perspective, drawing upon information from Marsalis’ website and public sources on the composer-trumpeter’s career.

My name is Wynton Marsalis, and I’m a composer and trumpeter. I come from a musical family and was born and raised in New Orleans. My father, Ellis, was a jazz musician, but it took me a while to realize I wanted to be a musician too.

Dad put a trumpet in my hand when I was six. I didn’t take it seriously until I was 12, and from then on, nobody could stop me. I won a solo competition with the New Orleans Philharmonic at 14, and I went to Juilliard for college. I left before I completed my degree, though, because I was set on being a classical trumpeter.

But then, in 1980, I went on tour in Europe with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It totally changed my perspective, and I realized I needed to keep jazz a part of my musical practice. I released my debut jazz album in 1982, which reached number 9 on the Billboard Jazz Album chart! One year later, I released a classical album – that one won a GRAMMY! I wrote two tracks on my debut album, and over the following decades I kept composing, expanding to include big band and symphony orchestra.

I prefer straight-ahead jazz: a style that continues the big band, smooth harmonies, and swing rhythms that defined the genre in the 1930s and 1940s. I see myself as keeping that tradition alive, though some folks see me as old-fashioned. In 1987, I started a Classical Jazz camp at Lincoln Center in New York City. It was so successful and popular that soon it became its own thing – you may know it as Jazz at Lincoln Center.

I served as the orchestra’s artistic director from 1991 to 2026. I’m stepping down to focus more on composing. A lot of my compositions merge jazz and classical elements; my oratorio, Blood on the Fields (1997), won a Pulitzer Prize in Music, and you’ve read about my A Fiddler’s Tale (1999) on this blog! I wrote my Violin Concerto in D major for Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti; she recorded it with The Philadelphia Orchestra and my friend Cristian Marcelaru, the new Cincinnati Symphony music director! This album also won a GRAMMY. Two years ago, Nicola and I got married and had a baby girl. You never know where your musical journeys will take you.

This fall, I’ll be bringing the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra to Cincinnati. Collaborating with Cristian and Nicola, we’ll be doing a three-day residency October 2-4, 2026 which will feature the premiere of my new symphony, Symphony No. 5, Liberty, a CSO co-commission. We’ll have the Cincy premiere of my violin concerto with Nicola as soloist. And on the last day, the JLCO will take the Music Hall stage. The repertoire is a surprise, so if you want to know what we’re playing, come and join us!