Wynton Marsalis Named Lincoln Center’s 2026-2027 Visionary Artist

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has announced award-winning trumpeter, composer, and educator Wynton Marsalis as the 2026-2027 Lincoln Center Visionary Artist. Free concerts, performances from Marsalis, talks and panels, and more celebrate his storied musical journey as his tenure leading Jazz at Lincoln Center, which he co-founded in 1987, comes to a close.

Marsalis is one of the most internationally acclaimed and consequential figures in American music and culture and has shaped Lincoln Center in ways that few artists in any field ever change an institution. After nearly 40 years as the founder and driving force of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and founder and Music Director of the remarkable Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the 2026-2027 season will be his last as Artistic Director.

“Wynton Marsalis embodies the cultural excellence that the Visionary Artist distinction was created to celebrate. His works have defined modern jazz and shaped how we think about education, community, and nurturing the next generation of artists from around the world,” said Shanta Thake, Ehrenkranz Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “We are so proud to honor him in his final year leading Jazz at Lincoln Center and celebrate all he has contributed to the Lincoln Center campus and the American music canon.”

“Lincoln Center would not be what it is today without Wynton Marsalis,” said Mariko Silver, President and CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “With his strong vision for what jazz could achieve, he built the genre a home on the Lincoln Center campus and brought the joy of jazz to millions of people here in New York City, and in communities across the country and the world. We are grateful to have the opportunity to recognize his incredible legacy, which will endure for generations to come.”

“Few artists have shaped the cultural landscape as profoundly as Wynton Marsalis,” said Clarence Otis, Board Chair of Jazz at Lincoln Center.  “Through his extraordinary artistry, visionary leadership, and unwavering commitment to performance, education, and advocacy through jazz, he has inspired generations of artists and audiences around the world. As the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts community honors Wynton’s remarkable achievements through these organization-wide celebrations, we welcome the broader arts community in recognizing the legacy of our visionary founder.”

The 2026-2027 Visionary Artist celebration – running from June 14, 2026 to October 27, 2027 – offers a comprehensive look at Marsalis’ body of work, beginning this summer with six free concerts in the David Rubenstein Atrium. Part of Summer for the City, these concerts trace the musical traditions and relationships that have shaped Marsalis’ artistic life. The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center performs Still Singing, Marsalis’ second string quartet that combines multiple American music sounds, from jazz and blues, to classical and funk. Concerts presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center see both beloved and up-and-coming artists perform, including Jason Marsalis, Orrin Evans, Nicole Glover, Xavier Anderson, Ben Wolfe and more. As the finale to their Summer Evenings concert series, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center takes on Marsalis’ Selections from At the Octoroon Balls in Alice Tully Hall. Later in the year, two formidable ensembles from The Juilliard School perform Marsalis’ Symphony No. 4, “The Jungle,” inspired by New York City; and Lincoln Center Theater will host an intimate salon-style evening, celebrating musical storytelling at the intersection of jazz and Broadway.

Also, part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s own 2026-2027 season Wynton: Come Home, audiences can experience a rich cross-section of Marsalis’ music, from big band settings to rare, intimate performances with his Quintet and Septet, in Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Highlights include:

• The Ever Fonky Lowdown with Award-winning actor Wendell Pierce;
• New works honoring Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin;
• Selections from Ochas and Afro!;
• The lively animal ballet Spaces;
• Marsalis and the Masters featuring his big band arrangements of Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, and John Coltrane, with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; 
• The World in Swing celebrating jazz as a dynamic bridge across cultures, with masters of flamenco, Brazilian, and Arab classical traditions;
• Call and Response where members of the Orchestra perform their own bold interpretations of Marsalis’ most beloved compositions, and many more.

Audiences have multiple opportunities to hear directly from Marsalis himself. In a keynote, entitled An Evening with Wynton Marsalis: The Future of Jazz and Democracy at Alice Tully Hall, Marsalis discusses the intersectionality of the arts and civics for up-and-coming American artists and future generations of creatives. In collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Marsalis speaks with the Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb in the panel The Universal Language of Jazz: Utilizing America’s Pioneer Artform Across Disciplines, with archival items from the library’s collection aiding their discussion. Future programming to be announced includes collaborations with Film at Lincoln Center, and additional moments to celebrate Wynton Marsalis’ legacy.

Each year, Lincoln Center’s Visionary Artist distinction honors an extraordinary creative whose impact and vision resonate across the many disciplines represented on the Lincoln Center campus. Celebrated in collaboration with Lincoln Center’s resident arts organizations, previous Visionary Artist honorees are Terence Blanchard (2023-2024), Rubén Blades (2024-2025), and Jeanine Tesori (2025-2026), whose celebratory season recently concluded.

Marsalis is the founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, one of the campus’ 11 resident arts organizations, which he has led as managing and artistic director for almost 40 years. His vision and advocacy for the art of jazz brought to life this permanent home for the genre on the Lincoln Center campus in 1996, growing from a small jazz concert series, to a Lincoln Center department, into a full-fledged organization in just a few short years. He also simultaneously built one of the most substantial catalogues in American music. Marsalis is a nine-time GRAMMY Award winner. His jazz oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. His compositions include more than 600 original works, including 13 suites, five symphonies, 11 dance scores, and concertos for violin, tuba, trumpet, orchestra, and cello; he has performed more than 5,300 concerts in 70 countries. Marsalis is the Founding Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School and President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation. He has long championed music education, including through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz for Young People concerts and the internationally acclaimed Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, which will publish eight unreleased scores by Marsalis this year, distributed free to schools worldwide. Additionally, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing U will present a series of classes on various aspects of Marsalis’ career as band leader and composer throughout the 2027 season.

Several ticketing options are available for Lincoln Center’s Visionary Artist series with Wynton Marsalis. Concerts in the David Rubenstein Atrium, part of Summer for the City, are free, first-come, first-served. Events taking place at Jazz at Lincoln Center go on sale today. For a full list of Visionary Artist events and additional ticketing details, visit LincolnCenter.org/Wynton.