Terri Lyne Carrington Named 2019 Doris Duke Artist
Berklee's Terri Lyne Carrington was named one of six Doris Duke Artist Award winners this year.
Image by Tracy Love
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) announced the names of the 2019 Doris Duke Artists, each receiving an award of $275,000, intended as an investment in and celebration of these artists’ ongoing contributions to the fields of contemporary dance, jazz, and theater. A total of $250,000 of the prize money is completely unrestricted, and $25,000 is dedicated to encouraging savings for retirement or later-life needs.
This year’s Doris Duke Artists receiving the award for their work in jazz are Terri Lyne Carrington, Grammy Award–winning drummer and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, and George Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. Additionally, Donald Byrd and Michelle Ellsworth received awards for their impact on the contemporary dance field, and Marcus Gardley and Lauren Yee received awards in recognition of their excellence in theater. Since 2012, the DDCF has awarded more than $10 million to 27 artists in the field of jazz.
“The endorsement from my colleagues really means a lot to me because for a long time I thought I was not fully accepted by my peers, and played mostly with people from a generation or two before me,” said Carrington. “I’ve tried to keep reinventing myself with diverse projects and by working with forthcoming cutting-edge artists, which is also why I teach. So this means the world to me—and, of course, the financial reward is an astounding gift and validation that people care about what you’re doing.”
“We could not be more excited to share the names of the 2019 Doris Duke Artists,” said Maurine Knighton, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. “They have earned this recognition through an incredibly rigorous nomination and review process conducted by a body of their peers. The work of these six artists has inspired creativity, new ideas, and awe across the arts sector and beyond. With the money from this award, they will be able to invest in their own wellbeing in ways that create the right conditions for them to continue to flourish and do their best work.”