Terri Lyne Carrington Elected To The American Academy Of Arts & Sciences

Three-time Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and composer Terri Lyne Carrington has been elected to the board of the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences in Cambridge, MA. Academy President David W. Oxtoby and Chair of the Board of Directors Nancy C. Andrews announced the election results on April 22, 2021. Founded in 1780, the Academy is an independent research center that is committed to multidisciplinary, nonpartisan research that engages experts in various fields and professions to provide pragmatic solutions for complex challenges.

Carrington, a professor at the Berklee College of Music and the founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, joins a 2021 cohort of 250 accomplished individuals from across various disciplines, including humanities, business, sciences, and communications.

In addition to Carrington, the new board includes activist and educator Angela Davis, broadcaster Oprah Winfrey, musician Terence Blanchard, playwright David Henry Hwang, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones ("The 1619 Project"), and cultural critic Hilton Als, among many others.

"I am beyond thrilled and extremely honored to have been selected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," says Terri Lyne Carrington. "The 2021 class is expansive and inspirational, and I look forward to the research that will be conducted during these extraordinary and transformative times."

The past year has been one of achievement and distinction for Carrington. She was named a 2021 NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., the nation's highest honor in jazz. Carrington was tributed at the NEA Jazz Masters celebration concert streamed on April 22, 2021, along with other 2021 masters Albert "Tootie" Heath, Henry Threadgill, and arts advocate Phil Schaap.

Carrington and band Social Science were also nominated at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category for their 2020 double album project, Waiting Game, released on Motema Music. Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science is the drummer's collaborative project with pianist Aaron Parks and guitarist Matthew Stevens, along with multi-instrumentalist Morgan Guerin, vocalist Debo Ray, and DJ/rapper Kassa Overall. The album's special guests include Esperanza Spalding, Nicholas Payton, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Rapsody, Meshell Ndegeocello, Maimouna Youssef, Raydar Ellis, and Kokayi. Carrington is already a three-time Grammy Award winner, earning Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2012 for The Mosaic Project; Best Instrumental Jazz Album in 2014 for Money Jungle: Provocative In Blue; and Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2015 for producing jazz vocalist Dianne Reeve's Beautiful Life. Carrington was the first woman to receive a Grammy Award in the Jazz Instrumental Album category.

Carrington has received honorary doctorates from Manhattan School of Music and Berklee College of Music. The Institute recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with gender justice and racial justice as guiding principles, and asks the important question, "What would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy?" She also serves as Artistic Director for Berklee's Summer Jazz Workshop, and Artistic Director of The Carr Center in Detroit, MI. In 2019, Carrington was granted the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award in recognition of her past and ongoing contributions to jazz music.

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