The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective’s 12th Annual Jazz Festival concludes with performance by Cécile McLorin Salvant
The Grammy-winning singer’s concert took place at Commons in collaboration with the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective.

Courtesy of Solomon Geleta
The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective’s 12th annual jazz festival concluded Sunday evening with a concert by Cécile McLorin Salvant at Commons. Known for her diverse curation of jazz music, Salvant was a powerful end to the weekend of jazz.
This year’s festival marks the first time that the Schwarzman Center supported the jazz festival. Salvant’s performance was largely possible due to the Schwarzman Center, said YUJC Co-President Teddy Horangic ’25.
“ It’s worth noting that jazz has a lot more institutional support from the university today than it did at the time of the first festival, over ten years ago,” said YUJC Co-President Alex Roseman ’25.
The festival spanned over three nights, with Salvant closing the festival on Saturday. The Mariel Bildstein Trio opened the festival on Thursday with a performance at the Afro-American Cultural Center.
Performances for the entirety of the festival are completely free and open to the public. The concert was full with many on the waitlist waiting outside of Commons in hopes of getting a spot inside the festival.
Salvant’s performance was preceded by the Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective’s performance. When Salvant took to the stage, event organizers asked viewers to refrain from taking photos or videos of the event.
About a year ago, the YUJC board had been brainstorming for the artist lineup of the festival when they realized that the Schwarzman Center had previously partnered with many different artists, including jazz artists.
When YUJC leaders spoke to the Schwarzman Center about a potential collaboration, the center said that a performance from Salvant had already been on their radar.
“It was just the perfect coincidence of matched incentives. We really could not have done this without them,” said Horangic.
According to Horangic, after seeing Salvant at age 16, she was sold on jazz singing. During the concert, Horangic spoke about how exciting it was to open for the person who fueled her passion for jazz.
She said that she hoped to emulate Salvant’s approach to supplement her music with historical and cultural storytelling.
“She’s just my hero in jazz. I aspire to have everything about what she does as an archivist, as a theatre performer. It’s all so inspiring,” said Horangic.
Salvant’s performance was accompanied by drumist Kyle Poole, pianist Gleen Zaleski and bassist Yasushi Nakamura.
Following the performance was a conversation led by Daphne Brooks, professor of African American studies. Brooks was incredibly excited for the opportunity to speak to Salvant, given that Brooks is a fan herself who has written and taught Salvant’s work many times in her classes.
“I’m always hopeful that I’ll be able to discuss with her about her work, especially right after she’s performed so that was a box I could check off my bucket list,” said Brooks.
During the conversation, attendees were able to hear more about Salvant’s creative process, specifically regarding her latest work, “Ogresse.” The recent release is a cross between jazz and theater: a dark, romantic myth about a monster with a taste for human flesh, who falls in love with a human man.
Additionally, Salvant spoke about her experience doing archival research and some current and upcoming projects. Salvant shared her plans to release an animated film, which has been in the works for about seven years and is set to be released in the next few years.
Since 2010, Salvant has released seven albums — of them, six have been nominated for Grammy Awards.