Artist in Residence: Cécile McLorin Salvant

This year’s Artist in Residence is Cécile McLorin Salvant. Considered one of the most highly regarded jazz vocalists of her generation, she is the recipient of three Grammy Awards as well as six nominations.

The New York Times ranked her voice alongside legendary vocalists like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald. Sung in both English and French, the music of Cécile McLorin Salvant (1989) gives a contemporary interpretation to jazz, soul, and blues, and continues to capture many hearts.

Born in Miami, Florida in a household where her family listened to all kinds of music, McLorin Salvant is the daughter of a Haitian father and a French mother. She began to study classical piano at the age of five, and singing in the Miami Choral Society when she was eight. Developing an interest in classical voice, she studied with private instructors before continuing her musical education in France, where she moved towards jazz.

McLorin Salvant won the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, shortly after the release of her first album. Its follow-up, 2013's WomanChild, was well received by both critics and audiences, earned her a first Grammy nomination, and marked her breakthrough. She later earned Grammys for Best Jazz Vocal Album for three consecutive albums: For One To Love (2015), Dreams And Daggers (2017), and The Window (2018). She now has eight albums to her name, the most recent being 2025's Oh Snap.

The composer, singer, and visual artist performs both her own songs and standards, drawing inspiration from jazz, medieval songs, and pop. She has developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. The result is a diverse repertoire; with that and her beautiful voice combined McLorin Salvant is a welcome guest at this festival and many other venues.

In addition, she is increasingly making a name for herself as a visual artist and is active in drawing, textile work, embroidery, paper cutting, and animation. Her work has been exhibited several times. McLorin Salvant herself stated that she often thinks visually first and only then musically, and keeps notebooks full of drawings and imaginary projects. At the festival five of her drawings will be on show during the art exhibition in Hudson hall, at WTC The Hague Art Gallery.

Musically, Cécile McLorin Salvant will songs from her 2025 album Oh Snap on Friday with her quartet consisting of Sullivan Fortner on piano, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and Kyle Poole on drums. On Saturday, she will perform Book Of Ayres, her own interpretation of Baroque music, and on Sunday she gives two performances: with the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley, she performs music from With Every Breath I Take, the album they recently recorded together. Her final performance is a duo with Sullivan Fortner, the pianist with whom she has been collaborating for years.