esperanza spalding

Esperanza Spalding is an American bassist, singer and composer, born October 18, 1984 in Portland, Oregon, and raised in the King neighborhood on the city's northeast side. Brought up by a single mother and homeschooled for much of elementary school because of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, she started violin around age five with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon before moving to bass. She attended Portland State University on a music scholarship and then Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, graduating in 2005 and joining its faculty as one of the youngest instructors in the school's history. Her debut album, Junjo, appeared on Ayva Musica in 2006, followed by Esperanza (2008), Chamber Music Society (2010) and Radio Music Society (2012) for Heads Up International. In 2011 she became the first jazz musician to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist; she has since won Best Jazz Vocal Album twice, in 2013 and 2020, and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists in 2013, for five Grammys in all. Emily's D+Evolution (2016) on Concord Records introduced an alter-ego song cycle staged with theatrical framing, and Exposure (2017) was written, recorded and released from a 77-hour session livestreamed to the public, pressed in a run of 7,777 copies. Later projects include 12 Little Spells (2018), the research-driven Songwrights Apothecary Lab (2021), which pairs composition with music-therapy practice, and Milton + Esperanza (2024), a collaborative record with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento. She has worked with Joe Lovano, Wayne Shorter and Patti Austin, and performed at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Spalding was appointed professor of the practice of music at Harvard University in July 2017 and resigned the post in November 2022, citing insufficient administrative support for curriculum and equity changes she had proposed.

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