Wynton Marsalis, Cecile Licad at Centrum

Centrum is thrilled to welcome Wynton Marsalis as our featured artist for the 2025 Benefit Concert & Gala Dinner. Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, and educator. A leading advocate of American culture, he is the first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full spectrum from of the artform–from its New Orleans roots to bebop and modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers....

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Centrum is thrilled to welcome Wynton Marsalis as our featured artist for the 2025 Benefit Concert & Gala Dinner. Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, and educator. A leading advocate of American culture, he is the first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full spectrum from of the artform–from its New Orleans roots to bebop and modern jazz. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.

At this special event, a 13-piece jazz orchestra led by Marsalis and featuring classical pianist, Cecile Licad, will perform to a silent film, Louis. A modern reimagining of early silent film, the movie is set in 1907 New Orleans where 6-year-old Louis navigates the colorful intricacies of life in the city and acquires his first cornet. Following the film, Marsalis will be joined on stage by jazz composer and bassist, John Clayton, who will curate a conversation with Wynton about his eminent career, lifelong dedication to arts education, and the multi-generational legacies their two families share.

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