Seven-time GRAMMY® Award nominee Nnenna Freelon has enjoyed a nearly 40-year career as a live performer, recording artist, arts educator and activist. Recently, Nnenna has toured in the tribute show Withers to Wonder with Take 6 and Clint Holmes. In 2026, she will embark on a tour with the Legendary Count Basie Orchestra celebrating their 90th year. The loss of her soulmate and husband, renowned architect Phil Freelon, in 2019 to ALS, followed by the loss of her sister Debbie in 2020 to cancer, have reshaped her way of being in the world. Rediscovering her voice through grief, her Grammy nominated recording "Time Traveler" is a universal love letter to all who’ve lost someone.
Freelon’s debut book, Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss is a Jazz Woman’s creative response to grief published by Duke University Press. Her critically acclaimed album Beneath the Skin on Origin Records, was born from the same creative breath.
Her award-winning podcast Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon has been hailed as one of the best narrative podcasts on grief by the Public Media Journalists Association. Recent awards include induction into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame; A seventh GRAMMY® Award nomination for AncesStars, Jazz Masters Award from the prestigious “Women’s Jazz and Blues Association of Palm Springs and an Emmy nomination for her contribution to the PBS NC documentary George H. White: Searching for Freedom.
Freelon is featured on the upcoming album The Sistering alongside Kate McGarry, Lenora Zenzalai Helm and Lois Deloatch This ground breaking project is slated for release on Zenzalai Music March 20, 2026
Freelon lives in Durham, North Carolina where she is board chair of the nonprofit NorthStar Church of the Arts. Co-founded in 2018 with her late husband Phil, it’s mission serves BIPOC and LGBTQ communities and lies at the nexus of social justice and the arts.
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Thursday, January 8, 2026
4:00 PM - 4:50 PM CST
