Our Team

Terri Lyne Carrington

Founder, Artistic Director

A Grammy Award–winning drummer, composer, and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington has enjoyed a career of over four decades playing with jazz luminaries Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Al Jarreau, and countless others. She received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music at 11 years old and was appointed professor at her alma mater in 2005. She currently serves as founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. In 2019, she was named a Doris Duke Artist and also released the critically acclaimed double album Waiting Game with her band, Social Science. She was named 2020 Jazz Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and won Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Group of the Year in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll.

Aja Burrell Wood

Managing Director

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Aja Burrell Wood is an ethnomusicologist, educator, and curator with a background in development and violin performance. Before her time at Berklee College of Music, she taught courses on music, history, and culture at the City University of New York (CUNY), City College, and Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. Her work includes research on musical community among black classical musicians, jazz and gender, jazz in the digital era, music and civic engagement, 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. She has curated performances for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for their Annual Women’s Jazz Festival. She has also served as an arts presenting consultant and thought partner for organizations such as Harlem Stage, Weeksville Heritage Center, and the Sphinx Organization.

Kris Davis

Associate Program Director of Creative Development

Pianist and composer Kris Davis was voted pianist of the year in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll and in the 2019 JazzTimes Critics Poll. She won both Composer of the Year and Pianist of the Year in 2020 from the Jazz Journalists Association. The New York Times dubbed her one of music’s top up-and-comers in an article titled “New Pilots at the Keyboard,” saying, “One method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis.” To date, Davis has released 12 recordings as a leader. Her newest release, Diatom Ribbons, was voted no. 1 jazz album of 2019 by the New York Times and NPR, among others. Davis works as a collaborator and side person with artists such as John Zorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, and Eric Revis, Johnathan Blake, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, and Tom Rainey. She received a Doris Duke Impact Award in 2015 and multiple commissions to compose new works from the Shifting Foundation, the Jazz Gallery/Jerome Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is currently the associate program director for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and runs her own music label, Pyroclastic Records.   

Linda May Han Oh

Ensemble Director

Bassist and composer Linda May Han Oh has performed and recorded with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, and Geri Allen. Raised in Perth, Australia, and currently based in New York City, she has received many awards, including second place at the BASS2010 Competition, an Australian Bell Award, honorary mention at the 2009 Thelonious Monk Competition, and the place of semifinalist at the BMW Jazz Competition. Oh was voted the 2012 DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star on bass and the 2018, 2019 and 2020 Bassist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, as well as 2019's Up and Coming Artist of the Year. She has had five releases as a leader, which have received critical acclaim, and she has written for large and small ensembles as well as for film. Oh is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music and has created a series of lessons for the BassGuru app for iPad/iPhone.

Val Jeanty

Ensemble Director

Haitian-born Val Jeanty is a Brooklyn-based Afro-electronic (VodouElectro) music composer, drummer, and turntablist. Her installations have been showcased at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and Lincoln Center in New York City, and internationally at Jazz a la Villette in France, the Venice Biennale in Italy, and SaalFelden Jazz Festival in Austria. She was a 2019 NYSCA Artist Fellowship recipient and has worked with a diverse array of artists including Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, and Geri Allen. Other highlights include “Fascinating Her Resilience,” a Wesleyan University commissioned multimedia performance collaboration with professor Gina Ulysse and work with Afro-Cuban bassist Yosvany Terry on his Grammy-nominated album, New Throned King.