Jazz at Lincoln Center is dedicated to inspiring and growing audiences for jazz. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of performance, education, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, weekly national radio programs, television broadcasts, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, jazz appreciation curricula for students, music publishing, children’s concerts and classes, lectures, adult education courses, student and educator workshops, a record label, and interactive websites. Under the leadership of managing and artistic director Wynton Marsalis, chairman Clarence Otis, and executive director Greg Scholl, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of events each season in its home in New York City, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and around the world. For more information, visit jazz.org.

has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” by The New York Times, praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on,” and is a 2020 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award for his work as “an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist, and advocate for jazz and the arts.” Mulherkar works with a number of leading artists of our time, including Wynton Marsalis, Anna Deavere Smith, and Alan Cumming, and is a founding member of The Westerlies, a new music brass quartet that creates the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Mulherkar also serves as artistic director for Jazz at Joye in Aiken, bringing leading young talent to the historic city of Aiken, S.C.

Her singing is deeply enriched by an understanding of the masterful voices of jazz past. Captivatingly unique, Thomas' sound moves in tones ranging from sweet invitations to assured convictions, establishing a personal and classic quality that leaves listeners swooning after her performances. Thomas’ talents have propelled her to many successes including performances at the Montreux, North Sea, and Umbria Jazz Festivals and in venues ranging from the Bahamas to Geneva, Switzerland. She was a resident in both the 2001 and 2002 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Programs—an international artist-in-residence program that assembles a select group of jazz musicians to perform their original compositions at the Kennedy Center. At Jazz Ahead she worked with a host of premier jazz educators and performers including renowned vocalist Carmen Lundy, Winard Harper, and Nathan Davis. Thomas’ extensive list of stateside performances includes appearances with Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, Houston Person, and the Barber Brothers. She has performed across the country from New Orleans to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. In 2001, Thomas was awarded High School Jazz Vocalist of the Year by Down Beat magazine. Notably, Thomas is the youngest person ever to be inducted into Peoria’s African‐American Hall of Fame at the age of 13 in 1996. She has also received a certificate of excellence from the state of Illinois in recognition of her musical accomplishments.

With a voice that embodies grace and passion and a personal style that sways effortlessly from jazz to R&B to gospel, Johns has emerged as one of the shining stars of her generation. A native of Hartford, Conn., Johns has been performing since she was 14 and has developed a distinctive, eclectic style that has increasingly caught the attention of her peers and some of the industry’s top performers. Johns received a bachelor’s degree in music management from the Jackie McLean Institute at the Hartt School of Music and studied performance with such jazz legends as Rene McLean, Jimmy Greene, and Nat Reeves. She has shared the stage with music royalty including Curtis Fuller, Hank Jones, Dionne Warwick, and Sheila Jordan, and has performed and recorded with an impressive array of leaders in the field including Dominic Farinacci, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ulysses Owens Jr., Ronnie Burrage, and Eddie Palmieri, among numerous others. In 2016, Johns completed a musical residency at Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha in Qatar and, several months later, honored Billie Holiday as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s New York production of Billie and the Boys. She has also performed a tribute to another of her idols, Lena Horne, at New York City’s famed Appel Theater, and toured throughout Russia in 2015 and 2016. Most recently, Johns was the winner of the Riga Jazz Stage Competition this past April in Riga, Latvia, and was featured in the Hartford Jazz Festival in July with the Harford Symphony Orchestra as part of an Ella Fitzgerald Tribute. Johns has also premiered works at New York’s Museum of Modern Arts (Jacob Lawrence Installation of Northern Migration) and is a member of the George Gee Swing Orchestra that performs regularly in-and-around New York City.

Young South African jazz vocalist, Sotashe, is gradually making his mark in the New York jazz scene. He moved to NYC in 2013 after being awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to pursue master of music (Spring 2015) at William Paterson University. Since then, Sotashe has gone on to win first prize at the very first Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Vocal Competition in 2014, and performed on the festival's main stage in February of 2015. More recently, he won the Audience Prize Award and placed second overall at the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in 2015, held at the annual Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. In the same, he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocal competition, where he was the very first male vocalist ever to place in the competition's finals. Sotashe has also performed on international stages which include singing at the Arcevia Jazz Fest and the Fermo Jazz Festival in Italy 2012; the Stockholm Jazz Festival with South African National Youth Jazz Band in Sweden 2012; at the Cape Town International Festival with George Benson and the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra 2010; the Johannesburg Joy of Jazz Festival 2012; and he has toured with the SAMA Award (Grammy equivalent) winning band Proxy in the U.K. and Ireland 2009-2011. He has also performed with Multi-Grammy Award winning gospel artist, Israel Houghton as part of New Breed (Africa) Ensemble. Sotashe is also the winner of the biggest music scholarship competition in South Africa, the South African Music Rights Foundation Scholarship, where he performed for the former South African President Thabo Mbeki. He is currently performing around New York City with the praised drummer Winard Harper, who has performed with the likes of Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, and many other legends in jazz.