Institute Trustee Wayne Shorter Announced as 2021 Doris Duke Artist

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced that renowned saxophonist, composer, bandleader and Institute Trustee Wayne Shorter is among the recipients of the 2021 Doris Duke Artist Awards, recognizing his extraordinary contributions to composed and improvised music over a career spanning more than six decades.

Shorter joins his bandmate, UNESCO Artist for Peace and longtime Institute collaborator Danilo Pérez, as well as pianist Kris Davis in the Awards’ jazz category. Also among the honorees is theater director Lileana Blain-Cruz, who is currently collaborating with Shorter on his operatic work, “Iphigenia,” set to a libretto by esperanza spalding.

First awarded in 2011, the Doris Duke Artist Awards provide a select group of exemplary artists with prizes of $275,000 each, $250,000 of which is unrestricted. According to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, “The award is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, it is a deep investment in the creative potential of dedicated artists. The foundation aims to empower Doris Duke Artists through the freedom of unrestricted support to take creative risks, explore new ideas, and pay for important professional and personal needs not typically funded by the project-related grants that dominate arts funding.”

The Institute sends its sincere congratulations to Shorter and all of the 2021 Doris Duke Artists on this well-deserved honor.

Click here to read the full announcement and learn more about the 2021 Doris Duke Artists.