2026 SISTERS IN JAZZ
COLLEGIATE COMBO COMPETITION
In an effort to support JEN’s overall commitment to represent and cultivate diversity and inclusion in jazz,
the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Women in Jazz Committee has re-established the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition.
Through this exemplary program, full-time university students identifying as young women or non-binary jazz artists ages 18-29 will audition
and be selected to perform in the Sisters in Jazz quintet.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
DEADLINE: OCTOBER 15, 11:59PM EST
Sisters in Jazz alumnae include such renowned artists as
Sara Caswell • Dawn Clement • Anat Cohen • Anne Drummond, • Rosana Eckert • Tia Fuller •
Linda May Han Oh • Tina Raymond • Chihiro Yamanaka …and many more!
AND NOW, YOUR NAME CAN BE ADDED TO THE LIST.
All SIJ applicants must be:
- A JEN Full Individual or eJEN Member
- A full-time college student, concurrently taking a minimum of 12 undergraduate hours or six graduate hours.
All applicants must submit the following by October 15th through the GetAcceptd.com platform:
1. Recording Submission: Preferred format mp3 (M4A or wav files also accepted)
- Four individual audio recording files of your best playing, total recording time not to exceed 25 minutes. (Video recordings not accepted):
- a ballad
- a medium-tempo blues (swing)
- an up-tempo rhythm changes tune (swing)
- a straight eighth tune (Latin, rock, funk, or original composition)
- VOCALISTS & HORN PLAYERS: play the head, take several choruses of solo and take the head out.
- PIANISTS, BASSISTS, & GUITARISTS: comp the changes or walk a chorus before soloing if not also accompanying a horn or vocal soloist and demonstrating those abilities. Using an existing recording that is not specifically in this format will be also be accepted, however.
- DRUMMERS: Everyone should play “Now’s the Time” as the blues selection and play the melody orchestrated around the set on the head in and out. Blues and rhythm changes should include trading 4s or full chorus solos. One tune, either blues or rhythm changes should include time playing with brushes as well as sticks. If some individual tracks are longer and include several soloists, indicate on the application at what time trading or solo choruses begin on those tracks.
2. One letter of recommendation
- You will submit the email address of one recommender in your application.
- Upon submission of the application, they will receive an email with a link to upload the letter on your behalf to Acceptd.
3. A bio, resume, or CV listing pertinent musical experiences.
4. A headshot or photo
- File should be print quality (high).
- File types accepted include: jpg, gif, and png.
- Label your photo file as follows: LastNameFirstNameJENSIJPhoto
5. An official copy of college transcript or other proof of concurrent full-time enrollment in an accredited college, university, or conservatory (a minimum of 12 undergraduate or six graduate hours)
6. $29 Application Fee paid through GetAcceptd.com.
- Your recommenders will have one week after the deadline to submit their LOR (Letter of Recommendation).
- We recommend lining up more than one recommender for your LOR, as some recommenders don’t complete the task.
- Reviewers want to hear pianists and guitarists comp in addition to soloing.
- Do your best to get as close to a well-balanced, professional-sounding recording as possible.
- Only ages 18-29 may apply.
- You must be a full-time student in the fall before the January JEN Conference.
- Make sure to submit the required repertoire in the format asked for; it is much easier for the adjudicators if all repertoire is submitted in separate files.
- We encourage original compositions for your fourth selection or if they fit one of the other categories.
2026 Sisters in Jazz Co-Directors
Terri Lyne Carrington & Ellen Rowe
2026 Sisters in Jazz Selectees rehearse with and receive feedback from a new director each year.
The quintet will prepare a selection of charts to premier at the 17th annual JEN Conference in New Orleans, January 7 – 10, 2026.
Celebrating 40 years in music, NEA Jazz Master and four-time GRAMMY® award-winning drummer, producer and educator, Terri Lyne Carrington started her professional career in Massachusetts at 10 years old when she became the youngest person to receive a union card in Boston. She was featured as a “kid wonder” in many publications and on local and national TV shows. After studying under a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Carrington worked as an in-demand musician in New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show, hosted by Sinbad.
While still in her 20’s, Ms. Carrington toured extensively with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, among others. In 2011 she released the GRAMMY® award-winning album, The Mosaic Project, featuring a cast of all-star women instrumentalists and vocalists, and in 2013 she released, Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, which also earned a GRAMMY® Award, establishing her as the first woman ever to win in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.
To date Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has been a role model and advocate for young women and men internationally through her teaching and touring careers. She has toured or recorded with luminary artists such as Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets, Esperanza Spalding, Kris Davis, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, and Nancy Wilson.
In 2019 Ms. Carrington was granted The Doris Duke Artist Award, a prestigious acknowledgment in recognition of her past and ongoing contributions to jazz music. Also in 2019, her collaborative project, Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science (formed with Aaron Parks and Matthew Stevens), released their album, Waiting Game, inspired by the seismic changes in the ever-evolving social and political landscape. The double album expresses an unflinching, inclusive, and compassionate view of humanity’s breaks and bonds through an eclectic program melding jazz, R&B, indie rock, contemporary improvisation, and hip-hop. Waiting Game was nominated for a 2021 GRAMMY® award and has been celebrated as one of the year’s best jazz releases by Rolling Stone, Downbeat, Boston Globe and Popmatters. Downbeat describes the album as, “a two-disc masterstroke on par with Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 hip-hop classic, ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’…” and garnered three of their critics poll awards, Album of the Year, Group of the Year and Artist of the Year. Ms. Carrington was also named Artist of the Year by Jazz Times Critics Polls, the Boston Globe, and the Jazz Journalists Association.
Ms. Carrington has received honorary doctorates from Manhattan School of Music, York University and Berklee College of Music, where she currently serves as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with racial justice and gender justice as guiding principles.
She has curated musical presentations at Harvard University, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the John F. Kennedy Center, and has enjoyed multi-disciplinary collaborations with esteemed visual artists Mickalene Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems and is also the artistic director for Detroit’s multi-disciplinary arts organization, the Carr Center.
In 2022, the curator and activist authored two books; a children’s book entitled Three of a Kind, on the making of the Allen Carrington Spalding trio, and the seminal collection, New Standards:101 Lead Sheets By Women Composers, another illustration of how she has worked tirelessly to fight for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary jazz musicians. Accompanying the book is her latest album, new STANDARDS vol.1, featuring 11 selections from the songbook with an all-star band.
The album, which ranges from ballads to experimental compositions, is timely and adventurous, exploring the multiverse of jazz, with Carrington (drums and percussion) joined by Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Matthew Stevens (guitar), and Nicholas Payton (trumpet) and welcomes special guests trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, vocalists, Melanie Charles, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, electronic artist, Val Jeanty, guitarist, Julian Lage, flutist Elena Pinderhughes, percussionist Negah Santos and vocalists, Melanie Charles, Samara Joy, Michael Mayo, Dianne Reeves and Somi. In 2023, the album won a GRAMMY® Award for the best jazz instrumental album.
Carrington also curated a multi-media installation to accompany and expand on the message of the New Standards book and new STANDARDS vol. 1 album. The installation premiered at Detroit’s Carr Center, and was later featured at the Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery in Boston.This ambitious series of projects were created to shine a light on women composers in historic new ways.
Ms Carrington serves as co-executive producer and musical director for the newly formed Jazz Music Awards and is a 2022 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. Prior to her appointment in Michigan, she served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Ms. Rowe has performed at jazz clubs and on concert series throughout the U.S., as well as touring in Europe, South Africa and Australia. CDs out under her own name include “Sylvan Way”, “Wishing Well”, “Denali Pass” and “Courage Music.” Her latest project, “Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion”, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, Marion Hayden and Allison Miller was released to widespread critical acclaim in January 2019. The “Momentum” band will be featured at the 2022 Jazz Education Network Conference. Also active as a clinician, she has given workshops and master classes at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik in Cologne, Grieg Academy in Bergen and the Royal Academy of Music in London, in addition to many appearances as a guest artist at festivals and Universities around the country.
When not leading her own small groups, she is in demand as a sideman, having performed with a wide variety of artists including Kenny Wheeler, Tim Ries, Frank Morgn, Tom Harrell, John Clayton, Ingrid Jensen and Steve Turre. She was also a guest on two installments of Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio.
Ms. Rowe’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by jazz ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the Village Vanguard Orchestra, BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commodores, Berlin and NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras, London Symphony, DIVA and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. Many of these works can be heard on recordings including “Leave It To DIVA”, “The Perth Jazz Orchestra”, “Bingo” (The Bird of Paradise Orchestra) and “I Believe In You” (DIVA). A recipient of jazz ensemble commissions from the Minnesota Band Directors Association, Illinois Music Educators, Lawrence University’s Fred Sturm Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Education Network, her big band compositions are currently published by Sierra Music Publications, Doug Beach Music and Kendor Music.
Having been selected to conduct the NAfME All-Eastern and All-Northwest Jazz Ensembles as well as All-State jazz ensembles throughout the country, she has also been an invited clinician at the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Convention, International Society for Jazz Composition and Arranging Symposium and Jazz Education Network conferences. She is on the Board of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers and also serves as the Coordinator for the JEN Sisters In Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition. Other activities include serving as an adjudicator and mentor for the JEN Young Composers Showcase, adjudicating the 2019 Kimmel Center Jazz Residencies and Lincoln Center Ertegun Hall of Fame. She also serves on the faculty of the NJPAC All-Female Jazz Residency in Newark, NJ. In 2017 she was named a UCROSS Composer Fellow and awarded a residency at the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
The 2026 Sisters in Jazz Quintet is sponsored in part by
Past SIJ Directors
2025 – Camille Thurman
2024 – Bria Skonberg
2023 – Marion Hayden
2022 – Allison Miller
2021 – Ingrid Jensen
2020 – Tia Fuller
2019 – Claire Daly
2025 SISTERS IN JAZZ SELECTEES
Marisa Cravero, 19, is an up-and-coming vocalist and multi-instrumentalist born and raised in West Des Moines, IA. Starting her musical journey at just 4 years old, Cravero has since developed a rich skill set in jazz, musical theater, and contemporary genres. Her dedication has led to collaborations with notable artists such as Gabriel Espinosa, Kim Nazarian, säje, and Alyssa Allgood, and performing in various venues in the Des Moines area.
Now a second-year Jazz Studies student at the University of North Texas, Cravero is currently studying with world-renowned vocal faculty Jennifer Barnes and Rosana Eckert. Despite being relatively new to the area, she’s already very active in the local music scene, performing in restaurants and bars with her own quartet in a variety of musical settings. Cravero’s diverse musical background and enthusiasm for sharing her craft continue to shine through in her performances, compositions, and arrangements.
Tessie Overmyer is a Sydney-based saxophonist and composer and a leading figure in Australia’s jazz community. Known for her dynamic performances, she has graced the stages of major festivals nationwide, including the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the Perth International Jazz Festival, and the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. Tessie has performed alongside renowned jazz luminaries such as Mike Nock, Barney Mcall, Sandy Evans, Scott Tinkler, and Sam Anning.
A dedicated bandleader, Tessie currently heads several acclaimed projects, including the Tessie Overmyer Trio, Quartet, and Quintet, all showcasing her original compositions, as well as co-leading the ensemble ‘Jiem.’ From 2021 to 2024, she served as lead alto saxophonist with the Australian National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and in 2023, she was honored with a nomination for the prestigious Freedman Jazz Fellowship. Additionally, she has been featured as a guest artist with the West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra and was commissioned to compose a new work for the APRA Art Music Awards.
As celebrated pianist Barney Mcall aptly describes, “Tessie has a gift that can’t be learned: a natural flow for the future and the ability to speak the poetry of life and death through her horn,” capturing the depth and artistry that distinguish her music.
Izzy Chase was raised in Bethel, Maine. She started playing piano at age 9, and discovered jazz in highschool. She was selected to perform with the Maine All-State Jazz Band in 2020.
Izzy is currently a senior at Loyola University New Orleans in the Jazz Studies program. Izzy plays with numerous ensembles at Loyola, including the top big band, afro-cuban ensemble and jazz combos. She studies with pianist Oscar Rossignoli. In the summer of 2023 she traveled to Ascona, Switzerland to perform at the Ascona Jazz Festival for two weeks with a Loyola combo under the direction of Amina Scott.
During her time in New Orleans so far, Izzy has shared the bandstand with legends such as Wess “Warmdaddy” Anderson, Jason Marsalis, and Ashlin Parker. She gigs regularly all over the city at various clubs, venues, and festivals, including Snug Harbor, The Jazz and Heritage Center, Jazz and Heritage Festival, and NOLA Funk Fest. She is also the pianist for the Holy Cross Lutheran Church.
Izzy has also been a part of various recording projects. Most recently she can be heard on the album Resilience (The Music of John Mahoney), a big band recording under the direction of Zac Bronson.
Halimah Muhammad is a bassist born and raised in Memphis Tenessee and is currently attending the University of Tennessee Knoxville studying studio music and jazz & string performance under bassist Jon Hamar. Her musical journey began in her early teens after finding many musical inspirations in her home town Over the span of her music career she has performed in serval honors groups such as the Memphis Jazz workshop, University of Memphis Honors orchestra, Tennessee music education association all State symphony orchestra. Halimah continues to pursue musical growth and musical versatility by participating in festivals such as Brevard jazz institute, Sewanne music festival, and playing in verius ensembles from local jazz groups, University of Tennesee Knoxville symphony orchestra, and funk, soul, and pop bands.
Maria Kolesnik is an up-and-coming drummer based in NYC, with a focus on jazz, Latin and Brazilian music. Having been introduced to music by her father, successful jazz bassist Dmitri Kolesnik, Maria fell in love with the artform at a very young age and decided early on that she would pursue it as a career. In 2018, at age 13, she recorded as a singer with her father, along with pianist Anthony Wonsey, and drummer Diego Voglino at Tedesco Studios.
Maria graduated from LaGuardia High School of the Performing arts in 2022, and since then has played at a plethora of clubs including Dizzy’s, Swing 46, Drom NYC, and Birdland. During high school, she was a part of the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance, where she discovered a passion for Afro-Cuban music thanks to the guidance of Zack O’Farrill and Jim Seeley.
She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree at William Paterson University, studying with the great Johnathan Blake. She has formed many different concept groups while in college, and has worked closely with the likes of Bill Charlap, Cecil Bridgewater, and Mike Ledonne. During her sophomore year, from 2023 to 2024, she was a part of the William Paterson Jazz Orchestra, led by Dr. David Demsey. In a review of the big band, jazz journalist David Orthmann said, “I was impressed by Maria Kolesnik. She manages to sound very assertive and interactive without going over the top or dominating the band.”
Maria has worked with many jazz legends, including Joe Lovano, Gary Smulyan, Arturo O’Farrill, and Valery Ponomarev, among others. She works consistently in the NYC area, and even holds a weekly residency at the Russian Vodka Room, where she plays in a trio with Dmitri Kolesnik and Misha Tsiganov. She also has worked for Jazz House Kids, where she was a teaching assistant for the Chica Power program, as well as other Jazz House camps and productions. Maria believes in the healing power of music and hopes to use it to make the world a better place.
SISTERS IN JAZZ
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
ELLEN ROWE
ELLEN ROWE
Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. Prior to her appointment in Michigan, she served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Ms. Rowe has performed at jazz clubs and on concert series throughout the U.S., as well as touring in Europe, South Africa and Australia. CDs out under her own name include “Sylvan Way”, “Wishing Well”, “Denali Pass” and “Courage Music.” Her latest project, “Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion”, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, Marion Hayden and Allison Miller was released to widespread critical acclaim in January 2019. The “Momentum” band will be featured at the 2022 Jazz Education Network Conference. Also active as a clinician, she has given workshops and master classes at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik in Cologne, Grieg Academy in Bergen and the Royal Academy of Music in London, in addition to many appearances as a guest artist at festivals and Universities around the country.
When not leading her own small groups, she is in demand as a sideman, having performed with a wide variety of artists including Kenny Wheeler, Tim Ries, Frank Morgn, Tom Harrell, John Clayton, Ingrid Jensen and Steve Turre. She was also a guest on two installments of Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio.
Ms. Rowe’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by jazz ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the Village Vanguard Orchestra, BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commodores, Berlin and NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras, London Symphony, DIVA and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. Many of these works can be heard on recordings including “Leave It To DIVA”, “The Perth Jazz Orchestra”, “Bingo” (The Bird of Paradise Orchestra) and “I Believe In You” (DIVA). A recipient of jazz ensemble commissions from the Minnesota Band Directors Association, Illinois Music Educators, Lawrence University’s Fred Sturm Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Education Network, her big band compositions are currently published by Sierra Music Publications, Doug Beach Music and Kendor Music.
Having been selected to conduct the NAfME All-Eastern and All-Northwest Jazz Ensembles as well as All-State jazz ensembles throughout the country, she has also been an invited clinician at the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Convention, International Society for Jazz Composition and Arranging Symposium and Jazz Education Network conferences. She is on the Board of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers and also serves as the Coordinator for the JEN Sisters In Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition. Other activities include serving as an adjudicator and mentor for the JEN Young Composers Showcase, adjudicating the 2019 Kimmel Center Jazz Residencies and Lincoln Center Ertegun Hall of Fame. She also serves on the faculty of the NJPAC All-Female Jazz Residency in Newark, NJ. In 2017 she was named a UCROSS Composer Fellow and awarded a residency at the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
SISTERS IN JAZZ ALUMNAE
- Marisa Cravero – Vocals
- Tess Overmyer – Saxophone
- Izzy Chase – Piano
- Halimah Muhammad – Bass
- Maria Kolesnik – Drums
- Gianna Pedregon – Violin
- Nanami Haruta – Trombone
- Jeongmin Ha – Piano
- Marion Mallard – Bass
- Maria Marmarou – Drums
- Destiny Diggs-Pinto – Bass
- Kal Ferretti — Trumpet
- Holly Channell – Drumset
- Lana Drincic – Piano
- Charlotte Lang – Saxophone
- Molly Redfield – Bass
- Summer Camargo – Trumpet
- Carmen Murray – Drumset
- Yeeun Kim – Piano
- Staphanie Tateiwa – Saxophone
- Jordyn Davis – Bass
- Minnie Jordan – Violin
- Megan Lock – Drums
- Alexandra Ridout – Trumpet
- Yvonne Rogers – Piano
- Samantha Spear – Sax
- Domi Edson – Bass
- Misaki Nakamichi – Drums
- Maya Keren – Piano
- Kate Williams – Trumpet
- Zahria Sims – Saxophone
- Colleen Clark – Drums
- Sarah Hanahan – Alto Saxophone
- Summer Kodama – Bass
- Marion Powers – Voice
- Franchesca Romero – Piano
- The Jazz Education Network (JEN), founded in 2010, formed the Women in Jazz Committee in 2018, and re-established the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition.
- Ashley Baker – Alto Sax
- Christie Dashiell – Voice
- Judith Goldbach – Bass
- Julia Brav – Piano
- Shirazette Tinnin – Drums
- Chelsea Baratz – Tenor Sax
- Sharel Cassity – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Vanessa McGowan – Bass
- Mika Nishimura- Piano
- Tina Raymond – Drums
- Misty Boyce – Piano
- Caroline Davis – Alto Sax
- Lauren Falls – Bass
- Melissa Gardiner – Trombone
- Lorie Wolf – Drums
- Lakecia Benjamin – Alto Sax
- Jacquelyn Coleman – Trumpet
- Delandria Mills – Flute
- Hanne Pulli – Drums
- Maeve Royce – Bass
- Carmen Staaf – Piano
- Ariel Alexander – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Brenda Earle – Piano
- Maria Joyner – Drums
- Linda Oh – Bass
- Janelle Reichman – Tenor Sax
- Kara Baldus – Piano
- Elizabeth Goodfellow – Drums
- Nicole Johaenntgen – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Jennifer Krupa – Trombone
- Ashley Summers – Bass
- Renee Marie Cruz – Bass
- Alyssa Falk – Drums
- Becky Noble – Alto Sax
- Tineke Postma – Alto Sax
- Daniela Schaechter – Piano
- Airelle Besson – Trumpet
- Laila Biali – Piano
- Karine Chapdelaine – Bass
- Tara Davidson – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Sandra Hempel – Guitar
- Kimberly Thompson – Drums
- Brandi Disterheft – Bass
- Anne Drummond – Flute
- Lisa Kelly Scott – Voice
- Karen Teperberg – Drums
- Chihiro Yamanaka – Piano
- Rosana Calderon Eckert – Voice
- Rachel Eckroth – Piano
- Tia Fuller – Alto Sax
- Karin Harris – Trombone
- Erin Marie Roberts – Bass
- Angie Tabor – Drums
- Sara Caswell – Violin
- Dawn Clement – Piano
- Anat Cohen – Tenor Sax, Clarinet
- Loraine Faina – Drums
- Jodi Proznick – Bass
