Cécile McLorin Salvant is a composer, singer, and visual artist. The late Jessye Norman described Salvant as “a unique voice supported by an intelligence and full-fledged musicality, which light up every note she sings”. Salvant has developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, folk traditions from around the world, theater, jazz, and baroque music. Salvant is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor.

Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010. She has received Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album for three consecutive albums, “The Window”, “Dreams and Daggers”, and “For One To Love”. In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Salvant released her debut Nonesuch records release “Ghost Song” in 2022; the album went on to receive two Grammy nominations. “Mélusine”, an album mostly sung in French, along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl, was released in 2023 and was also nominated for two Grammys. In 2025, Nonesuch released “Oh Snap” – an album comprised of twelve very personal songs composed and produced by Salvant. The album features longtime collaborators Sullivan Fortner, Yasushi Nakamura, and Kyle Poole, as well as cameos from singers June McDoom and Kate Davis.