Camille Thurman
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
Newburgh, New York
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$40,000
About the Project
Celebrating the legacy of Black women authors including Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Ntozake Shange and others, saxophonist/vocalist, Camille Thurman will partner with HBCU North Carolina Central University to perform and meet with students from multiple departments. Additional activities with the Durham Arts Council and Hayti Heritage Center will include performances and video documentation.
Residency location
Durham, NC
About the Artist
Remember the name Camille Thurman. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and unique interpreter of the jazz tradition, she is quickly becoming one of the standard bearers for the art form, making a considerable and dynamic contribution to the legacy of jazz while paying tribute to its heroes.
In a few short years, Thurman has shared stages with such jazz and R&B luminaries as George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Louis Hayes, Charles Tolliver, Buster Williams, Jon Hendricks, Jon Batiste and Wynton Marsalis among others.
The New York City native has already amassed several distinctive honors for her musicianship: multiple nominations for Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll (Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist), runner up in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, two-time winner of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award, 2019 NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Jazz Album, recipient of the Martin E. Segal Lincoln Center Award for Outstanding Young Artist, a winner of the Fulbright Scholars Cultural Ambassador Grant, the Phoebe Jacobs Prize and the inaugural Chamber Music of America Performance Plus Grant (Sponsored by the Dorris Duke Charitable Foundation) among others.
Thurman has four full-length recordings as a leader to her credit; Waiting For The Sunrise, Origins, Inside The Moment & Spirit Child. She has also recorded as a sidewoman with notable jazz artists including the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra and Dianne Reeves (Grammy Award winning album ""Beautiful Life"") among others.
Thurman was the first woman in 30 years to tour, record and perform full time, internationally with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as the tenor saxophone /woodwind chair (2018-2020). Thurman also leads her band, The Camille Thurman Quartet, which has toured and performed numerous notable concert venues and jazz festivals around the world including the Kennedy Center and Alice Tully Hall. She is also a collaborative featured artist with the Darrell Green Trio.
In May of 2020, Camille created and founded the “The Haven Hang: Young Lioness Musician Q&A and Advice Hour”. The Haven Hang serves as a virtual mentorship series for young women musicians with an initiative to mentor, share advice and give support to early career artists in music and the performing arts.
For more information on Camille Thurman, please visit www.camillethurmanmusic.com.