Hartt alumna Brandee Younger ’06 is the recipient of the 2025 Hartt Alumni Award. Since 1959, this prestigious award has recognized outstanding Hartt alumni who have made significant accomplishments in the performing arts as artists, scholars, educators, managers, and technicians.
Among the most celebrated jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century, Brandee Younger is a harpist, composer, and bandleader whose music connects spiritual jazz and classical training to the rhythmic soulfulness of R&B and hip-hop. She has performed and recorded with cultural icons including Ravi Coltrane, Common, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Christian McBride, The Roots, Pharoah Sanders, and Stevie Wonder.
Ms. Younger’s first LP for the storied Impulse! Records label—a.k.a. The House That Trane Built—was 2021’s Somewhere Different. A track from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned her a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category, making her the first Black female solo artist to achieve this. Two years later, on Brand New Life, Ms. Younger revitalized newly discovered Ashby compositions, and that LP won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. Released in 2025, Gadabout Season is a more reflective and personal work focusing on Ms. Younger’s inimitable original music. Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for, and exemplary command of, the instrument.
Ms. Younger earned her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance and Music Management at The Hartt School and her Master of Music at New York University (NYU) Steinhardt. In addition to her continuous performance and recording schedules, Ms. Younger is a dedicated educator who teaches on the faculties of New York University and the New School. Past residencies and masterclasses include The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), University of Birmingham (UK), Howard University, Drexel University, Princeton University, Tulane University, Trinity College, The Hartt School, University of Michigan, DePaul University, and Berklee College of Music.
She holds leadership positions as a board member of the Coltrane Home and New Music USA. As a concert curator, Ms. Younger has presented performances for venues including “Divine Ella,” part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival.
The Hartt Board of Trustees and The Hartt School will present Ms. Younger with the 2025 Hartt Alumni Award on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at the Hartt Dean’s Convocation at 12:45 p.m. in Lincoln Theater.