Angeleisha L. Rodgers

Angeleisha L. Rodgers is rapidly making her mark as one of today's most sought after trumpet players in New York City. Recently Rodgers performed in the Red Bull Music Academy Festival with Solange Knowles as a part of her Ode to Black show at the Guggenheim museum. Also, Rodgers' band Trumpetess and Friends performed in the 14th Annual Ladies Got Chops: Women's History Month Music and Arts Festival hosted by bassist Kim Clarke. Other notable performances included the 2015 Annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala, the Bertha Hope Quintet for the Boro-Linc South Bronx Culture Trail event, and she joined Sherrie Maricle and members of the DIVA Jazz Ensemble for an event with the Ronald McDonald House Magical Music Program. In February 2014, she performed with Grammy-winning gospel artist Tye Tribbett in Maryland, and was a featured player in the November 2013 airing of BET's NAACP Image Award-winning, Black Girls Rock 2013, an annual televised special, where she performed with Janelle Monae. Rodgers also performed with Grammy-winning gospel artist, Pastor Donnie McClurkin, in Church Without Walls sponsored by Perfecting Faith Church last summer. A native of Virginia, Rodgers began studying music at the age of 8 and, with the encouragement of her grandparents, performed mostly with church choirs and local bands. Later, during high school, she was a member of the VBODA Southside Regional All-District Band, and in her senior year, won the Louis Armstrong Jazz Merit Award from Randolph Henry High School (C.C.H, VA). Rodgers attended North Carolina Central University in Durham where she earned a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies with an emphasis in Musicology. Her thesis - which explores the life and music of Los Angeles jazz trumpet legend, Clora Bryant, a prodigy of Dizzy Gillespie-- won the Eileen Southern Research Grant from the American Musicological Society. Rodgers presented her thesis in November 2012 during the Society's annual conference. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Instrumental Studies from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia where she performed with the school's world-renowned Virginia State University Gospel Chorale. While in college, she performed with the late Dr. Billy Taylor and Frank Foster,as well as Grammy award winning saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Branford Marsalis. The busy musician currently works with the education department at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as travels throughout the US.