Branford Marsalis Fills Artistic Director Seat at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music

Photo Credit: Palma Kolansky

The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music has announced the official appointment of Branford Marsalis as the Center’s Artistic Director. Previously held by the center’s namesake Ellis Marsalis until his passing in 2020, the Artistic Director is responsible for overseeing the organization’s programming and carrying out its mission of bringing holistic care anchored in music to the children and underserved communities of New Orleans. Branford’s homecoming has been met with an outpouring of support and commendation for the acclaimed artist his organization.

Branford Marsalis is a true jazz polymath. In over four decades of performance, he has excelled as both an instrumentalist and a boundary-crossing composer through his solo work, his renowned quartet and his scores for other media, like George C. Wolfe’s 2020 film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Still, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music has remained one of the artist’s most honored ventures, having provided vital housing and community services to the Ninth Ward of New Orleans for nearly two decades.

The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music is the centerpiece of Musicians’ Village, an affordable housing development for artists in distress. Branford established the center alongside lifelong friend Harry Connick Jr. to preserve New Orleans’ unique arts culture and uplift the community after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Since its inception, the center has provided arts education, career development, access to state-of-the-art performance spaces and equipment and countless other services to the surrounding community under the rubric of holistic support. “My dad was a teacher, in music and in life,” Branford writes, on assuming charge of the center’s invaluable operations. “After Hurricane Katrina, he envisioned a haven for the underserved musicians and children in his hometown of New Orleans. He spent the last decade of his life committed to turning that dream into a reality at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. It is my honor to step into the role of Artistic Director at the Center and to continue to drive its mission. I hope to make my dad proud.”

Branford’s tenure as Artistic Director commences immediately. As he steps into his father’s role, the artist calls on deep personal and familial ties to New Orleans’ music culture to honor and renew its history while guaranteeing its future through the creativity of a new generation.