MJF Announces 2020 Next Generation Women In Jazz Combo Members

The Monterey Jazz Festival is proud to announce the members of the 2020 edition of the Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo, the second all-star group of talented young high school women from around the United States and the UK, under musical direction from bassist and vocalist, Katie Thiroux.

Members include Kellin Hanas, trumpet (senior, Wheaton North High School, Wheaton, Ill.); Gianna Pedregon, violin (junior, Orange County School of the Arts, Whittier, Calif.); Parthenope Wald- Harding, saxophone (senior, Chetham's School of Music, Leeds, UK); Brenda Greggio, piano; (sophomore, San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, San Diego, Calif.); Zoe Harrison, bass (senior, Rio Americano High School, Davis, Calif.); and Carmen Murray, drums (senior, San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, San Diego, Calif.). Pedregon and Murray are second-year members of the combo, and Hanas was a 2019 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra member. Wald-Harding is the first international member of the combo. Read more here.

The Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo will make their performance debut on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 4pm at the David Friend Recital Hall at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. where they will also work with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice under the artistic direction of Terri Lyne Carrington. Admission is free.

"The Women in Jazz Combo was such a success in 2019 that many other organizations took notice and wanted to see how they can help contribute and highlight young women in jazz music," said Katie Thiroux. "Berklee College of Music stepped up and invited them to Boston to visit their Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. There, the combo will meet each other for the first time, rehearse, do a main event performance, and they'll meet and work with leading female musicians and professors in workshops, clinics and discussion panels."

The Women is Jazz Combo is also is slated to appear at the 63rd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 25-27, 2020 along with more than 500 artists performing for 3 nights and 2 days of the world's best jazz.