“Cécile McLorin Salvant ... sings standards, show tunes and old novelties in a taut, flinty, elusively beautiful voice, erring toward material with difficult lyrics and tough places in history. Salvant wins over her audiences by tweaking them slightly: daring them to go there with her—not just into the archive, but toward the darkness of the past.” — New York Times
Cécile McLorin Salvant, a MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy Award winner, is a singer and composer bringing historical perspective, a renewed sense of drama, and an enlightened musical understanding to American and French songs, jazz standards, folk tunes and her own original compositions. Classically trained, steeped in jazz, blues, and folk, and drawing from musical theater and vaudeville, Salvant embraces a wide-ranging repertoire that broadens the possibilities for live performance.
Salvant’s performances range from spare duets for voice and piano to instrumental trios to orchestral ensembles. Her most recent work *With Every Breath I Take* features Holland’s premiere Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley with arrangements by Darcy James Argue. The 10-track album of timeless songs was released on Nonesuch Records in June 2026.
In 2026, she was the Artist in Residence for the North Sea Jazz Festival’s 50th anniversary and she frequently performs at national and international venues and festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Village Vanguard, Cité de la musique, Blue Note Tokyo, Alte Oper, and Victoria Hall. Her previous Nonesuch albums, *Ghost Song* (2022) *Mélusine* (2023), and *Oh Snap* (2025) received critical accolades; the former two both nominated for Grammy Awards and named best albums of the year by the *Guardian, Jazzwise, JazzTimes* and more.
Salvant is also a visual artist who explores a variety of mediums, including fiber arts, digital drawings, and mixed media. Among many ongoing creative projects, “Ogresse” is an ambitious long-form musical fairy tale that is being made into a feature length animated film. Her visual artwork is on display at Picture Room in Brooklyn, NY.
