2024 Artist Corps Fellows
Alexis Lombre, Photo by Patrick Gipson
Alexis is standing, smiling, with shoulder-length hair, wearing a hot pink dress.
Alexis Lombre is a pianist, vocalist, composer and producer from Chicago. She has toured nationally all over the United States, and internationally to Canada, Cuba, Brazil, France and South Africa with artists such as Jon Batiste, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Marcus Miller, Endea Owens & The Cookout, Dan Wilson, Nicole Mitchell, Jamila Woods, Tia Fuller, DJ D Nice and the Miles Davis Electric Band. Alexis Lombre was granted the Inaugural 2022 New Music Next Jazz Legacy Award and the 2023 Luminarts Award.
Alexis discovered early that the true essence of music is not just about what you hear but how music makes you feel. Her musical mission is to keep the ‘Soul’ in music alive. Lombre recently released her single “Come Find Me” which she describes as “lyrically, a gospel song; harmonically, a jazz song and rhythmically, a hip-hop/R&B song. I didn’t create the song with any borders.” As JazzTimes puts it “Lombre realized early on that by refusing to be constrained by convention—whether so-called “jazz” or otherwise—she’d be honoring, rather than defiling, the rich heritage she’d come to embrace.”
Bethany Pickens, Photo by Alberto Ferrari
Bethany is photographed in a close-cropped black and white photo, standing in front of a large tree. She has dreadlocks that fall below her shoulders, and is smiling. She’s wearing a horizontal striped shirt, and is leaning toward her left.
Bethany Pickens is an award-winning pianist and composer. Born in Chicago, she began her musical training under the watchful tutelage of her father Willie Pickens, world-class Jazz pianist. Since graduating from the American Conservatory of Music, Bethany has had the opportunity to perform, record, and conduct clinics with such artist as Clark Terry, Louis Bellson, Bobby Watson, Von Freeman, Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen, Willie Pickens, Susan Anton, and Grammy award winners Dee Dee Bridgewater, Roy Hargrove and Branford Marsalis, Rascal Flats, Josh Groban, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle and Usher.
As an Educator, Bethany has worked with JIC Jazz Links, Ravinia Jazz Scholars and recently retired from Teaching Music for the Chicago Public Schools after 28 years!
In addition to sitting on the Board of JIC, Bethany is Board VP of The Hyde Park Neighborhood Club
"Steeped in tradition, committed to creativity" is how Bethany describes her Performances, "a musical menu—something for everyone."
Duane Powell, Photo by Seed Lynn
Duane is in the act of djing in front of a brick wall, looking downwards. He’s wearing a straw-colored wide-brimmed hat, circular wire-rimmed glasses, a tan dress-shirt under a faded jean jacket with a large beaded necklace, along with white wired headphones near his ears. He has a focused look on his face, and sports a well-groomed goatee.
Growing up immersed in the richness of Chicago’s music scene of the 70s and early 80s, Duane Powell entered the world of street promotions in 1985 pounding the pavement promoting events for prominent entities on Chicago's southside. By the late 90’s, Powell launched the SOUNDROTATION brand and began curating events and concerts showcasing up and coming talent on the local and national soul and jazz scene. Many acts that went on to prominence including Robert Glasper and Ledisi as well as legends including Roy Ayers and Weldon Irvine. As a historian, Powell has shared his vast knowledge of music history on panels and has given lectures for institutions including UChicago Arts, Chicago Public Library, Stanford University, Detroit Institute of Art, Goethe Institute and many more. He’s also curated an awesome event Soundrotation presents Freedom Jazz Dance which has been presented by the Jazz Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Park District.
ARTIST CORPS provides financial support to Chicago MUSICIAN Fellows TO curate and PRODUCE PERFORMANCES IN NEIGHBORHOODS ACROSS THE SOUTH AND WEST SIDEs.
The Artist Corps Fellowship program is an initiative that expands the power and potential of community and artist-driven programs in neighborhoods. Artists-in-neighborhoods programs facilitate storytelling and community building; provide opportunities for healing and resilience; and create connections to advocacy, mutual aid, neighborhood health, and equity initiatives. Central to the mission of the Artist Corps program is bringing rich, engaging, artistic experiences to people where they live, particularly in communities without equitable access to cultural programming.
