The Flynn announced on Friday that pianist, composer and educator Jason Moran will curate the 2026 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. Moran is the latest jazz star to take the reins of the long-running festival, following Michael Mwenso, Lakecia Benjamin, Adi Oasis and Anthony Tidd in recent years.
Moran, 50, first hit the scene performing with saxophonist Greg Osby before signing a deal with Blue Note Records and releasing his 1999 debut, Soundtrack to Human Motion. He formed the Bandwagon, featuring bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits and released the 2001 record, Black Stars, which NPR’s “All Song Considered” included in its “The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings” list. He now has more than 15 records to his credit.
Moran became a MacArthur Fellow in 2010. The following year he was named the artistic director of jazz at the Kennedy Center. He left that position in July, and is one of several artists who’ve cut ties with the center since President Donald Trump removed president Deborah Rutter and board chair David Rubenstein earlier this year and named himself chair.
Moran will helm the 43rd iteration of Burlington’s jazz fest, which runs from June 3 to 7, and will focus on “the Black traditions that shaped American jazz,” according to a press release from the Flynn.
“This music is built on community reflection and deep listening — the way we learn from one another in real time,” Moran wrote in the press release. “The intensity of the present always finds its way into the sound, especially in those layers of listening on the stage, on the street, and in the crowd. With more than four decades of this festival’s history, I know Vermont will be all ears.”
For more information on the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, visit flynnvt.org.