Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant Among 2020 MacArthur Fellows

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Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant is among the 2020 MacArthur Fellows.

(Photo: MacArthur Foundation)

After receiving a Doris Duke Award in September, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant has been named a MacArthur Fellow, joining a cohort of 21 scientists, engineers, writers, scholars and artists.

The award, which recognizes “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction,” comes with a $625,000 prize.

“Through her wide-ranging choices in musical material and her manifold powers of expression, Salvant is reaffirming the timelessness of jazz as an art form and demonstrating its continuing cultural relevance in a fast-changing world,” according to the nonprofit MacArthur Foundation.

During the past several years, McLorin Salvant has won Grammys in the Best Vocal Jazz category for The Window and Dreams And Daggers, recorded with the Blue Note ensemble Artemis and topped a number of DownBeat polls.

​In 2019, guitarist Mary Halvorson and choreographer Sarah Michelson were among the MacArthur fellowship recipients. DB



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