ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON 2026 ADJUDICATOR BIOS

Jazz at Lincoln Center Adjudicators: 

Josh Murray 
Saxophonist Josh Murray has been Band Director at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento since 1998. Rio’s AM Jazz Ensemble has been a finalist at the Essentially Ellington Festival twelve times, was chosen as winners of the 2019 national “Perform With Bob Mintzer” competition, recently hosted and opened a concert with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and has performed worldwide on tours of Japan, China, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Australia, Ireland, Austria, The Czech Republic and South Korea. Rio’s musicians and bands have won dozens of DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards, and are three-time winners of the Charles Mingus Festival’s combo category. Murray’s performing credits include shows with Wycliffe Gordon, Phil Woods, Donny McCaslin, Jimmy Smith and the Drifters. Murray is a contributing author to Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz, Vol. 2, and was awarded the California Music Education Association (CMEA’s) Jazz Education Award in 2024

Sarah Hanahan 
Sarah Hanahan is a dynamic and soulful alto saxophonist rapidly emerging as one of the most compelling new voices in jazz. A graduate of both the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and The Juilliard School, Hanahan fuses the deep-rooted swing and bebop traditions with a bold, modern intensity—an approach that reflects her rigorous training and fearless artistic vision. Since her arrival on the scene, Hanahan has performed alongside an extraordinary range of jazz luminaries, including Jeff “Tain” Watts, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nicholas Payton, Peter Washington, and Joe Farnsworth. Her commanding tone, technical mastery, and melodic imagination have brought her to major stages across the U.S. and abroad, with regular appearances at premier New York venues such as Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club, and Smoke Jazz & Supper Club.

Her debut album, Among Giants (2024)—featuring Marc Cary, Nat Reeves, and Jeff “Tain” Watts—garnered widespread acclaim, earning a 5-star review and a place among DownBeat’s Top Albums of 2024. In 2025, Hanahan was named DownBeat’s #1 Rising Star Alto Saxophonist, affirming her status as one of the leading voices of her generation.

Whether leading her own quartet or collaborating with some of the music’s most revered artists, Sarah Hanahan plays with passion, precision, and an unwavering commitment to the evolution of jazz. 

LIU Post Music Adjudicators:

Jeff Lederer 
is a saxophonist/clarinetist and composer/arranger whose work crosses the lines of Jazz, Afro-Caribbean and New music.. He leads ensembles including the “Shakers n’ Bakers”, “Sunwatcher”, and the “Brooklyn Blowhards” . Mr. Lederer also plays in the groups of Matt Wilson, Bobby Sanabria, Allison Miller, Jimmy Bosch and many others. As a composer/arranger, Mr. Lederer’s largest work to date is “Los Sazones”, a Salsa re-working of the Vivaldi Four Seasons concertos, commissioned by the Ravinia Festival for the Chicago Symphony that went on to tour extensively with many major orchestras including the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Lederer was recently named as a “Musician to Watch in 2017” by JazzWise magazine in London. In the fall of 2017 Lederer served as artist-in-residence at the Guimaraes, Portugal Jazz Festival. Lederer continues to be active as a composer/arranger and created arrangements consecutively for the 2018 and 2019 Jazz Journalist Association’s “Albums of the Year” (Matt Wilson’s “Honey and Salt” and Bobby Sanabria’s “West Side Story Reimagined” which was also Grammy-nominated). Lederer is currently serving as Director of Jazz Studies and Music Technology, Entrepreneurship and Production at Long Island University in New York.

Jeff Lederer’s Fall 2023 releases on Little (i) Music include “Schoenberg on the Beach”, a jazz song cycle based on the early vocal works of Schoenberg and Webern, and “Balls of Simplicity – Jeff Lederer notated works 1983-2021”. Past releases on his own Little (i) Music label include “Eightfold Path” with his group Sunwatcher. The Sunwatcher Quartet first recorded in 2010 with Jamie Saft (pno/organ) Buster Williams (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums). “Eightfold Path” is the 2020 followup recording featuring Jeff with special guest Steve Swallow (bass) in eight compositions based on aspects of Buddhist Dharma. Little (i) Music was founded in 2005 by Lederer in order to produce and release music from his own large output, as well as that of his close artistic circle, focusing on the nexus of new jazz/improvised music and diverse spiritual traditions. The Label has 13 releases to date.

Jeff Lederer serves as Director of Jazz Studies and MTEP (Music Technology, Entrepreneurship and Production) at Long Island University in addition to being a Lecturer at the New School, NYC.

 

Richie Iacona 
Free Lance Pianist, Arranger, Composer and Conductor. Arranger/Conductor with Julius LaRosa, Toni Arden, Fran Jeffries, Gerard Carelli, Marilyn Michaels, Claiborne Cary, John Pizzerelli Jr. Madeline Kole, Peter Lemongello, Ray Alexander,and many others. Had the opportunity to performed with Kate Baldwin, Charles Aznevour, Marvin Stamm and the Norfolk Symphony orchestra, Tommy Tune, Julie Budd, Scott Record, Les DeMerle, Urbie Green, Clark Terry, Jerome Richardson, George Shearing, Liza Minelli, Diahan Caroll, Vic Damone, Leslie Uggams, Marlo Thomas, Phil Donahue, Clint Holmes, Elizabeth Taylor, Hugh O’Brien, Bill Cosby, Peter Noone, Darlene Love, Suzanna McCorkle, Chuck Jackson, Kathy Lee Gifford, Marvin Stamm and the Norwalk Symphony Faculty member - Interplay Summer Jazz Workshop Camp Woodstock, Vermont Staff - Arranger for The Rainbow Room Orchestra Rockefeller Center N.Y.C. Staff Composer/Arranger Omni Music Library. Omni projects and jingles include various music for: K-Mart, Telemudo and Univision Cable networks, Saturday Night Live, Heileman Breweries Inc., World Book, Sears Dept. Stores, Acura Motors, Theme song for 12 
Corazones, Lever Bros, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Office, Law and Order, Folgers Coffee, the USA Cable Network, Netflix and various Radio and Television spots both in the USA and Europe. Some of his major works are available and published by Carl Fisher, Omni Music Inc., and Smart Chart Music. Leader of “The Bad Little Big Band” since 1979. Member of ASCAP, and Local #802 American Federation of Musicians. Associate Adjunct Professor Of Music at LIU CW POST Appeared and performed in motion pictures- Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite”, “Celebrity” and “It Could Happen To You”