It is impossible to overstate the significance of the many achievements of Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. For more than three decades, beginning with concerts and other events at their home base and throughout New York City, they have expanded their activities to include national and international tours; dozens of recordings; television, radio, and online broadcasts; and, especially, a grand variety of educational programs that have created a new standard for arts institutions everywhere.

No art form can long prosper in the United States without businesslike organization. Jazz – that most American of all art forms – celebrates immediacy, spontaneity, and improvisation, and would seem to defy institutionalization. For nearly a hundred years, it did. Others had articulated the need for such a structure in jazz, but Maestro Marsalis was the first to give the idea palpable and successful shape. Not content with the mere preservation of this precious national resource, his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has refreshed the jazz tradition and continued to make it new.

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have earned Grammy Awards and nominations, Peabody Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize – the first ever given to a jazz artist – for their music. Of equal importance are their educational activities, too numerous and widespread to cite here; in addition, they continue to advocate for jazz. They are in the forefront of the activists who work tirelessly to ensure a proper and prominent place among the expressions of freedom, democracy, and tolerance that are the hallmarks of American civilization.

Washington Performing Arts is proud of its support and close association with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra over the course of more than four decades, presenting the Washington premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood On the Fields, commissioning the world premiere of Suite For Human Nature, partnering to enable the extensive revision and performance of the Blues Symphony, collaborating on our Capital Jazz program in the DC public schools, and providing Washington-area audiences with dozens of magnificent performances. In the early spring of 2020, as the performing arts struggled to respond to the pandemic, Washington Performing Arts and Maestro Marsalis partnered to offer virtual performances, interviews with other artists, and educational programs.

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra not only merit the designation, “Ambassadors of the Arts,” they embody it. They have used their phenomenal talents and virtuosity to demonstrate to the world the primacy of art as a true reflection of the highest values of humanity. And beyond being ambassadors, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra have been and continue to be arts warriors – constantly seeking to harness and shape artistic expression for social justice, progressive change, and the improvement of human lives throughout the world.

For all that they have accomplished – and all that they will continue to accomplish – Washington Performing Arts is proud to honor its friends, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with its Ambassador of the Arts Award.

Douglas H. Wheeler (2022)

Washington Performing Arts President Emeritus

Soloman Howard (2021)

operatic bass and social justice advocate

Midori (2020)

violinist, educator, and humanitarian

Sir James Galway (2019)

flutist and educator

Lonnie G. Bunch, III (2018)

educator, historian, and the Founding Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture

Denyce Graves (2017)

mezzo-soprano and educator

Jacqueline Badger Mars (2016)

business leader and philanthropist

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg † (2015)

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Leon Fleisher † (2014)

pianist, conductor, and educator

Jessye Norman † (2013)

soprano

† deceased