Jon Batiste (BM ’08, MM ’11, jazz studies) received a Grammy nomination for best American roots performance in 2018, and in 2020, he received two Grammy nods for the albums Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard and Meditations (with Cory Wong).

In 2020, he won an Academy Award for best original Score for the Disney/Pixar film Soul, an honor he shared with fellow composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Batiste’s work on Soul also earned him a Golden Globe, BAFTA, NAACP Image Award and a Critic’s Choice Award. He is the second Black composer in history, after legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock, to win an Academy Award for composition.

Batiste’s latest studio album, We Are, was released in March 2021 to overwhelming critical acclaim. Subsequently, he was nominated for 11 Grammys across seven different categories, a first in Grammy history. He went on to win five of those Grammys including album of the year.

Batiste’s virtuoso composing skills were recently showcased in his large-scale, genre-melding symphonic work American Symphony, which was workshopped with the Juilliard Orchestra in 2019 and premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2022.

Batiste was appointed an inaugural Juilliard Creative Associate in 2018, and he has participated in numerous projects in collaboration with students and faculty. He became a member of the Juilliard board in 2022.