Jefferson Center Lands Wynton Marsalis for Three-Night September Residency
Pulitzer- and Grammy-winning trumpeter will perform with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and lead a public masterclass at Virginia Western.
The Jefferson Center announced Monday that trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis will headline a three-night residency at Shaftman Performance Hall in September, the largest booking in the center’s 31-year history.
Marsalis, a Pulitzer Prize and nine-time Grammy Award winner, will perform with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on September 18 and 19, and close the residency with a solo recital on September 20. The residency will also include a free public masterclass at Virginia Western Community College on September 19 and a set of closed sessions with students from the Roanoke City Public Schools jazz programs.
“This is not a concert on tour with a stop in Roanoke,” Jefferson Center President Cyrus Pace said. “This is three days, built here, with the community woven into it.”
Pace said the residency came together after 18 months of conversations that began during a chance meeting between Marsalis and Jefferson Center board chair Estelle Nwosu at a Lincoln Center gala in 2024. The booking is being underwritten by a combination of ticket revenue, a lead gift from the Estelle and Henry Nwosu Family Foundation, and a matching grant from Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Ticket prices for the orchestra performances range from $62 to $245. The solo recital is priced from $85 to $320. The public masterclass is free but will require reserved tickets, which go live on the Jefferson Center’s website on May 6.
Marsalis, 64, has not performed in the Roanoke Valley since a 2009 appearance at the Salem Civic Center. In a statement released through Jazz at Lincoln Center, he said he was drawn to the residency format because “three nights gives you the room to actually plant something.”
Pace said the center has received more than 900 email inquiries about the residency since a teaser hint was posted on social media last Wednesday — a response, he said, “on the order of magnitude of Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma.”
Local jazz advocates hailed the booking. Pat Garrett, who runs the Thursday-night jam session at Corned Beef and Co., said the masterclass in particular would carry long after the residency ends. “Marsalis teaches like he plays,” Garrett said. “You go home with it.”
The Jefferson Center’s 2026–27 season, which opens in October, will be announced in full next month. Pace said it will include “at least two other names that will make people do a double take.”
Subscriber renewals open April 29. Single-ticket sales for the Marsalis residency open May 6 at 10 a.m.
