Performances + Events
NEC alumna, pianist, and composer Marilyn Crispell ’68 has been selected for a 2025 National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship.
Since 1982, the NEA has chosen a cohort of distinguished artists who have significantly impacted the advancement of jazz music for the Jazz Masters Fellowship program, described as the nation’s highest honor in jazz, each year. Past awardees include Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Hancock, and Quincy Jones.
In an interview with NPR, NEC faculty member and Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran remarked on Crispell’s incredible musicianship. “Following her playing all these years, watching also then all this kind of incredible lyricism flow from her hands, it’s easy to say that she’s a storyteller, but she also makes peace with the instrument. That’s the kind of piano player she is.”
Crispell was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Baltimore, where she took piano lessons at the Peabody Institute. She debuted with her album Live in Berlin with violinist Billy Bang, bassist Peter Kowald, and drummer John Betsch. Aside from her solo work, Crispell has collaborated with well-known contemporary composers such as Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, and Manfred Niehaus. She also played in the NYC Opera’s production of Anthony Davis’ opera, X, in 1986. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from NEC in 1968.
When not playing, Crispell taught workshops and lectured at universities and art centers worldwide. She is the former co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a former faculty member at Banff Centre’s International Workshop in Jazz. Crispell has received awards and fellowship grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
