Kenny Wheeler-Inspired Jazz Composition Symposium

Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. As a sought-out teacher, collaborator, and soloist, it is easy to see why the New York Times calls her “as versatile as she is vigorous.”

After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, Jensen was offered a position at the prestigious Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria. In the 1990s, she recorded three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene.

Settling in New York City, she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994-2012) and Darcy James Argue (2002-present). She has performed with a multigenerational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding. Jensen has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. Jensen is prominently featured on the Grammy Award-winning Mosaic Project, led by drummer Terri-Lyne Carrington.

One of Jensen’s most frequent and closest collaborators is her sister, the saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen. She is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno Award-winning album, Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). The sisters released a highly regarded small group recording entitled Infinitude (2016) on the Whirlwind label, featuring the brilliant guitarist Ben Monder, and have further collaborated with Nordic Connect, an international band featuring pianist and composer Maggi Olin.

A dedicated jazz educator, Jensen has resided on the jazz trumpet faculties at the University of Michigan, Peabody Conservatory, and Manhattan School of Music. She also served on the jazz faculty, teaching composition and arranging, at Purchase College and the New School for Jazz in NYC.

She performed and lectured as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock and performed and taught regularly at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, the Brubeck Institute, the Banff Center for Jazz and Creative Music, the Stanford Jazz Camp, the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for Young Women, and the Betty Carter Institute under the direction of Jason Moran. She is currently the Dean and Director of Jazz Arts at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.

Since her victory at the Carmine Caruso Trumpet Competition in 1995, Jensen has sat on the judges’ panel twice. She is regularly invited to trumpet festivals around the world and recently served as artist-in-residence with Tia Fuller at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival, where she also performed with her own quintet.

Her second project on the Whirlwind label honoring the late great Kenny Wheeler, Invisible Sounds (2018), was featured on NPR’s Jazz Night in America hosted by Christian McBride, receiving critical acclaim both in the US and abroad. Glowing reviews have earned her a loyal fan base around the globe, and she was hailed by the JJA as 2019’s Trumpeter of the Year. She is also consistently listed in the top 5 in the Trumpet category of the Downbeat critics poll.

Ingrid records often as a guest on scores of side projects, appearing at major venues around the world both as a performer and an educator. She is an integral member of the highly acclaimed Blue Note recording band, Artemis, and continues to write for and perform with her own projects both in New York and beyond.

Ingrid plays a custom Monette trumpet, built personally by the master builder Dave Monette.

Head of Jazz Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Nick Smart is an internationally renowned jazz educator, trumpeter and conductor who has given guest masterclasses and performances around the world. In 2013 he was awarded the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Education, in 2015 awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music, and in 2022 conferred with Professorship from the University of London.

His versatility as a trumpet player and his work at the upper echelons of Jazz Education has allowed him to perform alongside many international jazz stars in a variety of contexts, from Jazz Festival appearances to summer school concerts. These have included Dave Holland, Bob Brookmeyer, John Hollenbeck, Mike Gibbs and Nikki Iles, as well as most of the leading names on the UK jazz scene. He has also performed and recorded internationally as the regular soloist with the famous “JTQ”. Nick has released three albums as a leader to critical acclaim, including 2005’s “Remembering Nick Drake” which was described by Straight No Chaser magazine as “…a future classic because it really captures all that is best about British jazz….”. At home he is recognised as one of the leading musicians on the UK jazz scene, where as well as being in regular demand as a sideman to players of all generations, he continues to record and tour with his own projects. As an acclaimed musical director of large ensembles, Nick has been invited to lead projects with big bands all over the world. He has been a guest director of European Big Band projects in Paris, Tallin and the Jazz Institute Berlin, and last year was the guest director of the Grahamstown Festival Big Band in South Africa. And at home he has conducted the Stan Sulzmann “Neon Orchestra”, the award winning Troyka large ensemble, “Troykestra”, the Gareth Lockrane Big Band, the Julian Siegel Jazz Orchestra and orchestral projects with JTQ.

Perhaps most notably, Nick was a close colleague and friend of the late Kenny Wheeler and has been instrumental in keeping Wheeler’s legacy alive. As well as being a member of Kenny’s big band, Nick helped manage the latter stages of Kenny’s career, secured the Kenny Wheeler Archive into the Royal Academy of Music Collections, completed a PhD focussed on Wheeler’s development and co-wrote the biography; Song for Someone: The Musical Life of Kenny Wheeler (Brian Shaw and Nick Smart, Equinox Publishing 2025). Now regarded as one of the leading authorities in the world on Wheeler’s life and music, Nick has given talks, masterclasses and concerts around the world focussed on various aspects of Kenny’s life and his repertoire, many times in partnership with another close Wheeler associate, Dave Holland.