2026-2027 Season Emerging Artist Festival feat. Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes

Friday evening: VJC joins with the 118 Elliot Art Gallery to present a showcase of high school and college jazz ensembles. Saturday daytime: VJC teams up with area schools to feature student groups from area high schools and colleges. Daytime activities will culminate in a no-cost clinic offered by Elena Pinderhughes Saturday evening: Headliner Concert: Elena Pinderhughes Bio: Elena Pinderhughes is expanding the possibilities of what the flute can do in contemporary music. As an award-winning flutist, vocalist, and composer, this Manhattan School of Music graduate moves between genres like jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and orchestral music effortlessly. Jazz critic John Fordham of The Guardian has praised her as “the most exciting and creatively assured jazz flautist to have emerged in years”. Her versatility has led to collaborations with a range of artists including Herbie Hancock, Chief Adjuah, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Terrace Martin, Common, Kenny Barron, Vijay Iyer, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Future, while also working with Victoria Monet, Cynthia Erivo, Childish Gambino, and Jordan Ward. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White House, Coachella, Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreux, Newport, and North Sea Jazz. An example of some the noteworthy recordings she has been heard on include Chief Adjuah’s Stretch Music and Diaspora, Terrance Martin’s Impendance and Nintendo Soul, Common’s Black America Again, and Ambrose Akinmusire’s the Imagined Savior.