Grace Kelly is a seven time winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll as a rising star in the alto saxophone category.
The Wellesley, Massachusetts born musician recorded her first album, Dreaming, when she was 12. At 14, she received the first of her ASCAP Foundation awards for her composition "Every Road I Walked", and was invited to perform with the Boston Pops. For the occasion, she wrote her first full orchestral arrangement, adapting the award winning piece.
In 2009, she was a guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra as part of the events surrounding Barack Obama's inaugural celebration at the request of the ensemble's director, Wynton Marsalis.
Among Kelly's critically acclaimed releases are collaborations with jazz legends Lee Konitz (GRACEfulLEE, 2008) and Phil Woods (The Man With the Hat, 2011). The album with Konitz made DownBeat's Best Albums of the 2000s.
Maintaining a busy tour schedule with her group, Kelly has drawn critical praise and new fans every year with headlining shows at many major jazz festivals, from Montreux, to Newport, to Montreal.
A graduate from The Berklee College of Music in 2011, with a degree in professional music, Kelly has taught residency workshops there since 2012. 2012 also brought another important opportunity to pass on her musical knowledge. The United States Department of State sent her on an international speakers' tour to be an ambassador of jazz and educate the people of Madagascar and the islands of Comoros about the music.
Kelly has completed her eighth studio album, Trying To Figure It Out, which expands on her longstanding interest in genre-bending while maintaining a jazz foundation. Fittingly, she describes the album as one that explores the world of jazz and beyond. Among the musical settings are acoustic jazz and cinematic compositions driven by mood and sound effects, mixed with improvisation. Contemporary production, groove, and songwriting show Kelly's characteristic avoidance of restrictive labels.
