Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar is one of the founders of American brass quartet the Westerlies. In 2024, he released his debut album, Riley, which was praised by DownBeat magazine as “über-hip, modern yet timeless…one of the best debut records to come out in in a long, long time.” Since high school, Mulherkar has been a prolific and disciplined musician who absorbed everything from Seattle’s rich and well-established jazz scene. Under the guidance of legendary jazz bandleaders Robert Knatt and Clarence Acox, the doors to the Juilliard School opened. While there, he quickly found a musical home with Jazz at Lincoln Center and its world-renowned artistic director Wynton Marsalis. In 2020, Mulherkar received the Lincoln Center's prestigious Emerging Artist Award for his work as “an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist and advocate for jazz and the arts.” Since then, he has performed with greats such as Kenny Barron, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Anna Deavere Smith.
