7th Annual Emerging Artist Festival, 2024
feat. Ekep Nkwelle Quartet
Saturday Nov 2nd, 2024
4 PM Clinic with Ekep Nkwelle and Student Performers
7:30 PM Concert with the Ekep Nkwelle Quartet
IN PERSON TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR STARTING AT 7 PM FOR 7:30PM CONCERT. OR, PLEASE ENJOY THE LIVE STREAM BY DONATION FOR BOTH 4 PM CLINIC AND 7:30 PM CONCERT
Please give generously and support live music
If you can’t make it in-person, you can livestream this concert in this page or through our Facebook page, but please consider making a donation. Tickets are valued at $60 per seat and are general admission. Your contribution will go directly towards sustaining the Vermont Jazz Center’s mission of providing access to top quality jazz music to all as well as fair employment to jazz musicians.
The VJC is honored to present the Ekep Nkwelle Quartet.
Ekep Nkwelle, vocals
Luther Allison, piano
Liany Mateo, bass
Kelton Norris, drums
The Emerging Artist Festival (EAF) began as a way to intentionally feature a young, emerging artist as a part of the Jazz Center’s monthly concert series. The EAF is now in its 7th year, but for five years prior to initiating the festival, the VJC interspersed emerging artists throughout our regular season. This served as a great way for us to network with younger musicians and keep our team knowledgeable about rising talent. For example, this was how we got to know Camille Thurman who, in 2017, knocked us out with her power, expertise and creativity on vocals and saxophone.
In 2018 we developed the idea of celebrating emerging artists into a full-fledged festival. That first year we presented Arco Iris’s Sonic Asylum in collaboration with our area high school’s diversity program. We also piggy-backed onto the exciting buzz created by Brattleboro’s Friday evening Gallery Walk by presenting student groups in numerous downtown venues. We also created the model we now use to provide educational opportunities: Student groups perform throughout the day on Saturday followed by a clinic and concert with the guest artist.
In our second year we hosted Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa. Then came the pandemic. Thanks to videographer Michael Hanish and audio engineer Julian McBrowne, we were able to build a professional quality, live-streaming setup. This gave us wings to survive and bring joy to our audience remotely. That year, the now legendary Samara Joy drove up from New Jersey to perform a livestream show with only our production team and tech-crew to cheer them on. Once a little-known emerging artist, Samara Joy, now age 25, has risen to the level of jazz superstar.
VJC Emerging Artist Festivals:
(7th) 2024 – Ekep Nkwelle (vocalist)
(6th) 2023 – Lakecia Benjamin (alto saxophone)
(5th) 2022 – Dan Wilson (guitar)
(4th) 2021 – Val Jeanty (DJ) with Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
(3rd) 2020 – Samara Joy (vocalist)
(2nd) 2019 – Harold López-Nussa (piano)
(1st) 2018 – Arco Iris Sandoval (piano) and Sonic Asylum
Emerging Artist Performances:
2017 – Camille Thurman (vocals and saxophone) and Darryl Green (drums)
2016 – Caili O’Doherty (piano)
2015 – Sofia Rei (vocalist)
2014 – Sarah Charles and Integriti Reeves (vocalists)
2013 – Kavita Shah (vocalist)
For this evening’s concert we are delighted to present Ekep Nkwelle, a 24-year-old Cameroonian-American vocalist who was raised in the jazz-rich environment of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where alumni include Meshell Ndegeocello and Wallace Roney. Nkwelle went on to Howard University, and then Juilliard where she was nominated by Wynton Marsalis to receive the Juilliard Career Advancement Grant. Nkwelle was chosen by Dee Dee Bridgewater to participate in her exclusive, all-women artistic residency, The Woodshed Network. Nkwelle continues to appear as a featured artist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and has sung for audiences in venues nationwide including Radio City Music, the Library of Congress, Blues Alley, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Strathmore. She has performed at the Newport, Montclair, Hudson, and D.C. jazz festivals as well. A handful of jazz luminaries with whom Nkwelle has sung include Russell Malone, Cyrus Chestnut, Emmet Cohen, and Endea Owens. As one of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s newest rising stars, Ekep Nkwelle is poised to shape the future of jazz.
Joining Nkwelle is pianist Luther Allison, who earned a Grammy for his work with vocalist Samara Joy. He has toured with bassist Endea Owens and is a fellow at the National Jazz Museum of Harlem’s Jazz is Now! program. Allison was chosen by Jazz at Lincoln Center to serve as music director for an upcoming 40-city tour. Samara Joy says: “The passion that [Luther] plays with uplifts those around him and inspires everyone to play at their best.”
Bassist Liani Mateo has performed with Geoffrey Keezer, Fay Victor, Jazzmeia Horn, Brandee Younger and many others. She appears on Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra Blue Noter album, Legacies. Her latest work includes tours with Regina Carter, Catherine Russell and Matthew Whitaker. Mateo holds a master’s degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute.
The drummer for the is DC-based Kelton Norris. Called “Best Drummer” by the Washington City Paper, Norris performs and records with such artists as Hamiet Bluiett, Afro-Blue, Rodney Whitaker, Warren Wolf, Paul Bollenback, Ron Blake, Victor Provost, Elijah Jamal Balbed, Shannon Gunn, and many others.
The Jazz Center is especially grateful to Julian Gerstin and Carlene Raper for the sponsorship of this special event.
The Vermont Jazz Center is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Community Foundation.
Many thanks to our videographer Michael Hanish, sound engineer Julian McBrowne, photographer Jeff Starratt, our many volunteers, and dedicated board members.