Jazz at Lincoln Center is the world's largest not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to jazz. With the world-renowned Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Arturo O'Farrill and a comprehensive array of guest artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique vision for the continued development of the art of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of education, performance, and broadcast events for audiences of all ages. These productions include concerts, national and international tours, residencies, a weekly national radio program, television broadcasts, recordings, publications, an annual high school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children's concerts, lectures, adult education courses, film programs, and student and educator workshops. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis and President & CEO Hughlyn F. Fierce, Jazz at Lincoln Center has prospered.

The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO), composed of 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the JALC resident orchestra for over 10 years. JALC features the remarkably versatile LCJO in nearly all aspects of its programming: the LCJO performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S., and around the globe; in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs, public parks, river boats, and churches; and with symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, local students, and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists.

Education is at the heart of the JALC mission and its educational activities are carefully coordinated with concert and LCJO tour programming. These programs, many of which feature LCJO members, include the celebrated Jazz for Young PeopleSM family concert series, the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival, educational residencies, workshops, and concerts for students and adults worldwide. JALC educational programs comprise two-thirds of its overall programming, and annually reach over 110,000 students, teachers, and general audience members.

The JALC weekly radio series, Jazz From Lincoln Center, hosted by Ed Bradley, is broadcast to over 120 National Public Radio affiliates nationwide. Winner of a 1997 Peabody Award, Jazz From Lincoln Center is produced in conjunction with Murray Street Enterprise, New York.

Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the LCJO features a vast repertory, from rare historic compositions to JALC-commissioned works, and spends over half of the year on tour. The music performed by the LCJO also includes compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Billy Strayhorn, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, Sy Oliver, Oliver Nelson, and many others. Guest conductors have included Benny Carter, John Lewis, Jimmy Heath, Chico O'Farrill, Ray Santos, Paquito D'Rivera, Jon Faddis, Robert Sadin, David Berger, and Loren Schoenberg.

JALC also regularly premieres works commissioned from a variety of composers, including Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers, Randy Weston, Danilo Perez, Joe Lovano, Chico O'Farrill, Freddie Hubbard, Charles McPherson, Marcus Roberts, Geri Allen, Eric Reed, Wallace Roney, Christian McBride, LCJO members Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Ted Nash and Ron Westray, and many others.