Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇø

Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇø is thrilled to announce that Jason Moran, one of the most visionary and influential figures in contemporary jazz, will serve as the curator for the 2026 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. This year’s festival takes place across Downtown Burlington from June 3-7. This year’s festival, produced by the Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇø and presented by  

Jason Moran is a MacArthur Fellow, pianist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist whose work continually expands the sound and meaning of jazz. A leading voice on the international stage, Moran bridges musical mastery with visual art, film, and performance, redefining how audiences experience  music. His projects—spanning collaborations with Kara Walker, Julie Mehretu, and Ava DuVernay (for whom he composed the score to Selma)—connect the history of Black creativity with the urgency of contemporary expression. Through more than fifteen recordings, his long-running trio The Bandwagon, and commissions worldwide, Moran has become one of the most influential figures shaping the future of American music.

The festival will celebrate jazz as a distinctly American art form—rooted in Black traditions and shaped by generations of creative exchange. From its beginnings, jazz has drawn strength from the meeting of cultures and the blending of voices, transforming difference into connection and rhythm into shared expression.

 A MacArthur Fellow, Doris Duke Artist, and former Artistic Director for Jazz at the Kennedy Center, Moran has continually reshaped the field. His acclaimed STAGED installations have recreated historic jazz venues inside major museums, while his collaborations with Kara Walker, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Ava DuVernay demonstrate how jazz can speak across disciplines and generations.

Moran’s curatorship extends Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇø’s growing legacy of uniting world-class artistry with local creativity, following statewide projects like Playing Fields that bring performance into civic life and public spaces. Through the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, Â鶹´«Ã½ÉçÇø continues to amplify access to the arts across Vermont, connecting local communities to national conversations about creativity, democracy, and belonging.