Guest Artist and Clinicians | University of Portland

Guest Artist and Clinicians

2024 Jazz Festival Guest Artist: Shirazette Tinnin

Shirazette Tinnin
Photo Credit: Bex Wade
 

We are thrilled to welcome Shirazette Tinnin as the guest artist for the 2024 University of Portland Jazz Festival!

Shirazette Tinnin is a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator, music director, published author, and health coach. She serves as a full-time Associate Professor of Percussion at the Berklee College of Music, where she directs the Dee Dee Bridgewater Ensemble and teaches private lessons. Tinnin, a Latin Grammy Nominee (2022), Make Jazz Fellow, and Fulbright recipient, is also the American drummer with Bridgewater and loves being a member of her band.

Additionally, Tinnin performs and freelances with other artists that include Deborah Cox, Lea Delaria (Orange Is the New Black), Endea Owens, Yuri Juárez’s Afro-Peruano, Afrikkanitha, Alan Harris, Alicia Olatuja, Nicole Mitchell, Tia Fuller, Mimi Jones, Orange Coffee, Alicia Keys, and Black Girls Rock (BET), and she leads her own projects The Sonic WallPaper Band and her jazz trio for political injustices, Moods of Her.

Tinnin has served as Music Coordinator for Urban Bush Women (2017-2023), founded by Jawole Zollar, and was Music Director for Alan Harris’s “Cross that River,” curating the final festival presentation at Little Island (summer 2021), called “Jazz Women.” She also has television credit for the first season of The Meredith Viera Show on NBC.

Tinnin has a background in marching percussion, classical percussion, world percussion, and her primary instrument, drum set. She studied at Appalachian State University for her undergraduate degree and is currently on their advisory board. She earned a master’s degree in music is from Northern Illinois University in Jazz Pedagogy under the direction of saxophonist Ron Carter. She also has a diverse background in fitness, with certifications in TRX, DNA Fitness Programming, Corrective Exercise, and Exercise Therapy from ISSA and NASM.

Her latest album, The Cards that Life Can Deal, which was featured on JAZZIZ magazine’s “Inside Track,” was released in 2021 and is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify. She plans to release new music featuring bassist Christian McBride in 2024.

Read about our Past Guest Artists and Clinicians!