New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra was founded in 2002 by their artistic director, Irvin Mayfield, a GRAMMY® nominated and Billboard Award winning trumpeter and composer who is the officially appointed Cultural Ambassador for the City of New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra performs and presents educational programs that draw upon the rich musical and cultural traditions of New Orleans. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans lacked a world-class performing jazz organization capable of supporting, sustaining, promoting, and celebrating jazz's integral value to New Orleans and American culture. Addressing this lack of infrastructure in the birthplace of jazz is The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra's mission, which now carries greater weight with every passing day in post-Katrina New Orleans. A distinguished nine-member national volunteer Board of Directors sets policy for the professional administrative staff that supports the signature big band as well as jazz trios, quartets, quintets, sextets and other jazz education programming. Additionally, all of the organization's programming and presentations celebrate jazz as an influential contributor to American culture, and serve to remind the world that jazz is the most democratic form of artistic expression.