Ashley Jackson

Ashley Jackson is the principal harpist of the contemporary music group NOVUS NY and also performs widely as a soloist. She is also a significant educator and scholar with a strong commitment to diversity in the arts. Jackson grew up in a musical household. Her mother played the organ in a Baptist church, and her father was an avid jazz fan. Jackson and her sisters all started young on the piano, and Jackson was strongly drawn to performing music. She took up the violin and the harp at seven and played all three instruments. Jackson chose the harp because it offered chances to play with an orchestra, which she still often does. She attended Yale University, where she won an award from the school's Afro-American Cultural Center for outstanding musical achievements, won two concerto competitions, and was principal harpist of the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Graduating in 2008, Jackson went on for a master's at Yale, which she received in 2009, and a doctorate at the Juilliard School, completing that in 2014. By that time, she had already become an Adjunct Artist at Vassar College. Her doctoral degree also involved a dissertation on composer Margaret Bonds. In 2019, she made her recording debut with the Dessoff Choirs on the Avie album Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs. In addition to her work with NOVUS NY, Jackson has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolis Ensemble (in New York), and the Qatar Philharmonic. She is also a member of the Harlem Chamber Players and has developed several original projects with that group. Jackson has performed as a soloist at New York's Lincoln Center, the Celebrate! Brooklyn festival, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Jackson has been in demand as a lecturer on Bonds and on diversity in the arts, and she has published several articles on these topics. In 2023, she made her solo recordingd debut on the Bright Shiny Things label with the album Ennanga. She is an assistant professor of music at Hunter College in New York.
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