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ADJUDICATION
Academic Partners – Blues Alley is revolutionizing our approach to the jazz vocal pedagogy by rotating judges affiliated with major academic institutions, music schools, and conservatories. Each year the competition will include noted vocal academicians to critique and judge those vocal submissions that may not otherwise have exposure to veteran industry professionals. Past judges have represented Howard, Syracuse, George Washington, SUNY-Purchase, George Mason and Towson State Universities. Our celebrity judge for 2026 is Nnenna Freelon.
Action Dates – The commencement for all registrants will occur on November 1, 2025 and conclude on January 31, 2026 at 12 noon East Coast Time. Judges will review and arbitrate all vocal submissions with their subsequent deadline to decide and to reduce our audio submissions to five finalists in the beginning of March.
Deadline – All registrant submissions shall be aggregated by our third party Program Director; processed and distributed to our four independent judges who shall then adjudicate each submission according to a codified list of vocal protocols. The results will be announced mid March, 2026 and the finalists will be contacted about submitted videos.
Nnenna Freelon
Seven-time GRAMMY Award nominee Nnenna Freelon and multi-Award winning artist, Freelon has earned a well-deserved reputation as a compelling and captivating live performer. In 2025, Nnenna continues to prove her indomitable spirit and artistry with several major events – her PBS-NC TV Special Shaped By Sound episode, her newest album release “Beneath The Skin” (her first collection of many originals) in March, followed by her debut as an author (in her book entitled Beneath The Skin of Sorrow) release in Fall! With amazing reviews and SOLD OUT concerts, 2025 looks toward a promising 2026-27 Season!
Watch for her in two brand new shows – WITHERS TO WONDER: Celebrating the Music of Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, and with THE WORLD FAMOUS COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA Celebrating their 90th Anniversary year! With her son Pierce Freelon, they made Grammy history at the Grammy Awards by being the first mother and son nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY awards in separate categories. Their collaborative recording, “AnceStars” (2023), marked her first family music recording with Pierce. Nnenna’s new Podcast "Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon” garnered Ambie Awards in 2022 and 2021, her debut seasons.
Nnenna is also a wife, mother, and sister who has experienced life's amazing gifts, and also its heartbreak. 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. Her 2022 recording ‘Time Traveler’ and Podcast are reflections of this new territory and an intimate expression of her love for Phil and their 40-year journey.
In her ongoing efforts to foster community, the arts and education, Nnenna founded the NorthStar Church of the Arts in Durham. Such efforts to reach across diverse audiences follow such honors as The White House requesting Freelon to headline the Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) for 300 Presidents, Premiers and Heads of State from around the world and the YWCA of North Carolina’s recognition of her outstanding artistry and dedication to education with their inaugural “Legend Award.”
As writer, composer and producer, Nnenna’s productions include the original theatrical presentation of The Clothesline Muse, a devised theatrical work of dance, music, spoken word, vibrant art and projections. She is also one of the stars of the musical theater piece. The play won a National Theater Project creation grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), a much sought after honor only awarded to six worthy recipients. This is not her first stint acting. Freelon made her feature film debut in “What Women Want” starring Mel Gibson.
In the company of other great artists, Nnenna triumphed in composer Laura Karpman’s undertaking of Langston Hughes’ “Ask Your Mama” at The Apollo Theater and at an astounding Hollywood Bowl concert with opera superstar Jessye Norman and the indie phenom band The Roots. She also wowed audiences at SRO shows at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival with the Duke Ellington inspired “Dreaming The Duke,” with classical star Harolyn Blackwell and pop-jazz-crossover pianist Mike Garson. Her TV appearances on In Performance at the White House, on ABC celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, led to the versatile songstress/composer having a featured song on the hit TV show Mad Men. That was followed by a new collaboration on tour with legendary guitarist Earl Klugh and with legendary pianist Ramsey Lewis.
Nnenna received from the National Association of Women In The Arts the “Youth Empowerment Through the Arts” Award and “Artist of the Year” Award. She was named a “Woman of Substance” by Bennett College for Woman, delivered the Keynote Address for the Arts Midwest Conference, and much more. Freelon is a winner of both the Billie Holiday Award from the prestigious Académie du Jazz and the Eubie Blake Award from the Cultural Crossroads Center in New York City.​