Aja Burrell Wood Joins Board of Directors for New Music USA

New Music USA has named Aja Burrell Wood, managing director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, to its board of directors. New Music USA helps to nurture the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music through project grants, community advocacy, a large national network of music professionals, and the development of its online magazine, NewMusicBox.

“In the United States, we have yet to fully value, affirm, support, and celebrate all the richness and deep diversity there has long been in our music, which is why I am thrilled to represent the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice on the New Music USA board of directors,” said Wood. “I look forward to contributing meaningful and sustainable support of today’s music creators, as well as those of the future, in our work."

Wood currently implements vision and strategy, oversees institutional initiatives and programming, teaches courses related to gender and justice in jazz and Black music history, and produces events for the Berklee community. She has extensive experience as an ethnomusicologist, educator, and curator, with a background in development and violin performance. She most recently taught courses on music, history, and culture at the City College of New York and Brooklyn College's Conservatory of Music. Her work includes research on musical community among Black classical musicians, women in jazz, jazz in the digital era, music and civic engagement in Harlem, and other related genres of the African Diaspora, such as blues, hip-hop, soul, and West African traditions. She has been a visiting fellow at the New School, in addition to her role as guest lecturer at New York University and various institutions throughout New York City.

News of Wood’s appointment to the New Music USA board comes as Terri Lyne Carrington, founding director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, was recognized with a NEA Jazz Masters Award last week.