Cécile McLorin Salvantis a composer, singer, and visual artist, who was described by the late Jessye Norman as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings.” She was born and raised in Miami, FL to a French mother and Haitian father, and started classical piano studies at five years old, sang in a children’s choir at eight, and began classical voice lessons as a teenager. An accomplished musician, she won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010 and, in 2020, received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards and won three times for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Window”, “Dreams and Daggers”, and “For One to Love.” Salvant’s latest work, Ogresse, is a musical fable that blends the genres of folk, baroque, jazz, and country, and explores fetishism, hunger, diaspora, cycles of appropriation, lies, othering, and ecology. Created as an homage to the Erzulie and Sara Baartman, Salvant wrote the story, lyrics, and music. It is currently in development to become an animated feature-length film, which Salvant will direct. In addition, Salvant makes large-scale textile drawings, and her visual art can be found at Picture Room in Brooklyn, NY.