Kurt Elling

Two-time GRAMMY-winning vocalist Kurt Elling joins the internationally acclaimed WDR Big Band to celebrate their acclaimed album In The Brass Palace in July 2027. Under the direction of legendary saxophonist, composer, and arranger Bob Mintzer, the program features striking new arrangements of music by Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Duke Ellington, John Scofield, Joe Jackson, and more — blending Elling’s fearless improvisation, emotional depth, and unmistakable voice with the full force and precision of one of the world’s great jazz orchestras.

KURT ELLING:CHICAGO NIGHTS (May 2027)

After serving as Co-Artistic Director alongside Herbie Hancock for Chicago’s International Jazz Day 2026 celebrations, two-time Grammy winner Kurt Elling returns with a performance deeply connected to the city that shaped his musical identity. Long before the international touring career, Elling developed his voice in Chicago clubs like The Green Mill, coming up in a scene where individuality mattered, musicians pushed each other creatively, and no two nights ever felt the same.
That spirit still runs through his music today. Elling moves easily between classic repertoire, modern jazz, spontaneous improvisation, and storytelling, always bringing a sense of connection and honesty to the performance. Widely regarded as one of the leading jazz vocalists of his generation, he brings the depth,imagination, and creative openness that remain central to the Chicago jazz tradition.

Kurt Elling is a two-time GRAMMY Award–winning vocalist renowned for his signature rich sound and an inventive, deeply individualized body of work. With a one-of-a-kind approach to contemporary beat lyricism and vocalese, the Chicago-based artist has expanded the expressive possibilities of vocal jazz. The New York Times has called Elling “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time,” while The Guardian (UK) praised him as “a kind of Sinatra with superpowers”
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Over a career spanning more than twenty-five years of touring and recording, Elling has earned three Prix du Jazz Vocal (France), two German Echo Awards, two Dutch Edison Awards, and sixteen GRAMMY nominations. He has topped the DownBeat Critics and Readers Polls for Male Vocalist of the Year for more than a decade and is a twelve-time Jazz Journalists Association Award winner. In recent years, his work has continued to garner widespread acclaim for its ambition, range, and cross-genre reach.
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In 2024, Elling made his Broadway debut to critical praise, starring as Hermes in the Tony Award–winning musical Hadestown, further underscoring his rare versatility as both a jazz artist and theatrical performer. His performance introduced him to new audiences while reaffirming his stature as one of the most expressive vocalists of his generation. Elling has collaborated with leading figures across the jazz world, including Branford Marsalis, Danilo Pérez, Fred Hersch, Charlie Hunter, and Stefon Harris, and has appeared as a featured soloist with many of the world’s premier large ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Symphony Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, the WDR Big Band and Orchestra, the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, and the Village Vanguard Orchestra.
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A prolific lyricist and composer, Elling has also co-created multidisciplinary works for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and the City of Chicago. Jazz at Lincoln Center presented the world premiere of The Big Blind, a new jazz musical he is co-writing with songwriter Phil Galdston. National Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky has written that “In Kurt Elling’s art, the voice of jazz gives new spiritual presence to the ancient, sweet and powerful bond between poetry and music”.
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Elling has toured internationally in a wide range of settings, including UNESCO-sponsored International Jazz Day performances around the globe, and has appeared twice at the White.

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