Lisa Linde: DownBeat Honor for Achievement in Jazz Education

By Terry Perkins I Dec. 30, 2025

“If you’re the only girl in a jazz band, you may not play your best,” says Lisa Linde, who founded JazzHers to bring more girls into jazz.
(Photo: Cynthia Cavanaugh)

2025 has been quite a year for Lisa Linde, music director at Newton South High School in Newton, Massachusetts. At the Jazz Education Network conference in January, Linde was named the 2025 John LaPorta Jazz Educator of the Year, an annual award presented by JEN to honor outstanding jazz educators who represent the highest standards of teaching and who bring distinction to their institution and their students. Linde’s NSHS Jazz Ensemble was one of 30 finalists in this year’s Essentially Ellington competition, marking the third time Newton South was invited, following appearances in 2018 and 2021. The NSHS Jazz Ensemble was also a winner in the Large High School Jazz Ensemble category of the 2025 DownBeat Student Music Awards. And to top off the year, Linde recently received the DownBeat Achievement Award in Jazz Education. Although her interest in playing jazz didn’t blossom until high school, when she switched from playing flute in the marching band to playing trombone and joining the school’s jazz lab band, she’s certainly made up for her late start through her outstanding career in jazz education.

“I remember picking out an instrument to play in 4th grade,” recalls Linde. “I had a friend who picked flute, so I did, too. In freshman year at high school, I auditioned for the marching band and barely made it as the second-to-last flute. When the band director told us we had too many flutes and saxophones, and needed people to switch, one of the instruments they needed was trombone, which was an instrument I really liked. I made the switch, was recruited into the jazz lab band and vividly remember getting the chance to do a scoop on a note or put a little vibrato on a phrase. I really loved the creative possibilities.”

After high school, Linde attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she played in the jazz band, the big band, the jazz combo and a trad New Orleans group. After graduation, she began teaching music at Franklin High School while also pursuing a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with legendary educator Frank Battisti. After she received her master’s degree, she began teaching at Newton South High School, and began to shape and build the jazz program there.

“I modeled what I wanted to do to grow the jazz program at Newton South on my high school program,” explained Linde. “And on the amazing program that Jeff Leonard had at Lexington High School. Jeff had a strong emphasis on small group improvisation playing, but improv instruction was not a strong thread when I was in high school. Back then, teaching improvisation was, ‘Here’s a scale and here’s a Jamey Aebersold record. Good luck to you.’ I wanted to teach it differently, help my students solve the mystery of it.”

When Linde started at Newton South, there were no middle school music programs that served as feeders for high school jazz. She decided to start by working with her high school students in small groups that focused on improvisation and personal expression, transcribing and arranging jazz solos.

“I was never the greatest improviser when I was younger, so I was transcribing along with my students when I first started teaching,” explains Linde. “‘Here’s a Miles Davis solo, let’s transcribe it together.’ One term we studied the music of Thelonious Monk. I’d read books about him, so in many ways I was learning with the students. For a long time, I thought you shouldn’t ever write out anything for a student, but I quickly figured out that if you don’t give them a starting point, a snippet of something, they’re just gonna play up and down scales and it’s not going to sound like jazz. You teach them to take apart those snippets and use them to improvise. It’s a balancing act. You give them some framework to start with and eventually it becomes a pathway for them to improvise on their own. You want to get to the place where you set the students free.”

In addition to teaching advanced jazz ensemble and advanced concert band at summer sessions at the University of New Hampshire, Linde founded the non-profit organization JazzHers in 2018. The JazzHers website home page (jazzhers.com) states the organization’s mission: “JazzHers is dedicated to driving change in the jazz community by advocating for and empowering young women, non-binary and other underrepresented musicians with a focus on mentorship, performance and connection.”

Linde was inspired to start JazzHers at a Q&A session between high school music students and Wynton Marsalis when she and the NSHS band attended Essentially Ellington in 2018.

“A young girl told Wynton that she didn’t see herself represented at EE, and in jazz in general,” recalls Linde. “She asked him what he could recommend for her to do to help that situation. At Essentially Ellington, the bands were made up primarily of boys. Even my jazz band that year only had two girls. Wynton answered the girl’s question by saying that when you see a lack or a void in your circumstances, you must strive to put yourself in there and work to make it better. … I came home and decided that I will take that message. Later that same year we started JazzHers and held our first event.”

Entering its eighth year, JazzHers presents an annual series of one day events at schools across Massachusetts called JazzHers Jams. The events include a free clinic for that school’s jazz band.

“Research shows that if you feel like you’re in the minority in a situation, you’re going to close up and not be as expressive as you should be,” explains Linde. “One way to fix that is through these JazzHers Jams. … We’re in a huge growth mode, and we’re frantically fund-raising to continue to make it all happen.” DB