Annual Emerging Artist Festival feat. Ekep Nkwelle

Saturday daytime: VJC teams up with area schools to feature additional student groups from area high schools and colleges. Daytime activities will culminate in a no-cost clinic offered by Ekep Nkwelle to area youth and older aficionados.

Saturday evening: Headliner Concert Ekep Nkwelle

Ekep Nkwelle, a 24-year-old Cameroonian-American jazz vocalist, has carved her musical path from the vibrant streets of Washington, DC, to the heart of New York City’s jazz scene—from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, to Howard University, to Julliard’s graduate program in jazz. Nkwelle has sung with numerous jazz luminaries including Russell Malone, Cyrus Chestnut, Peter Washington, Emmet Cohen and Endea Owens. She has performed with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra as a featured artist, and sung for audiences in iconic venues nationwide, including Radio City Music Hall, the Library of Congress, Blues Alley, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Strathmore. She has sung for the appreciative crowds at Newport, Montclair, Hudson, and DC jazz festivals as well. In 2023 Nkwelle was nominated by Wynton Marsalis to receive the Juilliard Career Advancement Grant; this recognition was soon followed by her performance on NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concerts.” Ms. Nkwelle was chosen by Dee Dee Bridgewater to participate in her exclusive, all-women artistic residency, The Woodshed Network. As one of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s newest rising stars, Ekep Nkwelle is poised to shape the future of jazz.

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