Jacqueline Pickett, Principal Bass

Bassist Jacqueline Pickett is an accomplished artist in a variety of styles, having performed with musicians ranging from country singer Allison Krauss to avant-garde composers Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros. She also has album credits with hip hop/ rhythm and blues artists Monica and Jhelisa, and alternative classical “music without boundaries” with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. 

As a student of acclaimed bassist and political activist Richard Davis, Jacqueline has a deep passion for music leading to social change. From 2011-2018, she headed the 501c3 non-profit TORCH Academy that was dedicated to music education through community involvement. She taught young people in rural Alabama to improvise and express themselves through music through a project spearheaded by her duo with pianist Consuela Lee the Lee/Pickett Duo. They brought numerous great artists to the underserved young audiences of rural Alabama, including Max Roach and Milt Jackson.

Jacqueline is the bandleader of Metro Atlanta Women’s Jazz Society, an organization that promotes female jazz artists, as well as Principal Bass of the Columbus (GA) Symphony Orchestra, LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, Gwinnett Ballet Orchestra, and is artistic advisor of the Davenport Chamber Players. Former Principal Bass of the Tanglewood music festival orchestra (1991-92) and Gateways Music Festival where she has been invited to join the orchestra for their Carnegie Hall debut 2022, Pickett is also a founding member of the Sphinx Orchestra and the Ritz Chamber Players.

Dr. Pickett received her Bachelor of Music degree with high honors from West Virginia University, was awarded the George Wellington Miles merit-based scholarship for her master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, and was the first person to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Double Bass Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation on the music of American Composer John Elwood Price (1935-1996) remains the most comprehensive work on the celebrated composer and faculty member at Tuskegee University. Currently she is on the music faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and is a visiting artist at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.