2020 Guest Jazz Musicians
Dontae Winslow
Dontae Winslow is one the rising stars in the music industry. His music is an eclectic mix of straight ahead jazz, blues, funk, classical film score and hip-hop soul. Dontae was trained in music at the formidable Baltimore School for the Arts high school. In four years, he attained a Bachelors and Masters degree in Classical Music Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the John's Hopkins University. He also completed studies at USC under film composer Terence Blanchard, pianist Herbie Hancock, string arranger Jeremy Lubbock, and trumpeter Gary Grant at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz on a fellowship.
As a Film Composer Dontae composed the original score for The HBO Documentary “Baltimore Rising” directed by Sonja Sohn and Marc Levin, BET’s “The New Edition Story” directed by Chris Robinson, and Robert Townsend’s “In The Hive” starring Oscar Award winner Michael Clarke Duncan, Loretta Divine, and Vivica Fox. As a Music Producer/composer he wrote and produced the opening orchestral fanfare to the #1 Billboard Dr.Dre album Compton from the Movie Soundtrack “Straight Outta Compton”. He has recordings as songwriter and trumpeter with Jay-Z, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and Mary Mary. As Trumpeter he is featured on the #1 Song by Aloe Blacc “I’m the Man” and played the theme to the hit TV series the “Haves and Have nots” by Tyler Perry on OWN. Dontae arranged music for a 100 piece orchestra set for Queen Latifah’s debut at The Boston Pops Symphony in 2016 in front of a sold out audience.
He has performed in and arranged for the house bands of the SING Movie Premiere, the BET AWARDS, American Idol, The Voice, BET HONORS, and the NAACP Image Awards. Recently He has scored for orchestral arrangements for Eminem on Saturday Night Live, the MTV Euro Awards world premiere of “Walk On Water” feat. Skylar Grey, and Eminem at Coachella 2018 feat Dr. Dre.
As a member of the Justin Timberlake’s TNKids Band he traveled and performed on 6 continents with the 2020 Experience World Tour, one of the biggest tours of the decade grossing over 231 million dollars and is currently on the MAN OF THE WOODS tour for 2018.
After winning the John Lennon international songwriting competition for Children’s music in 2002 Dontae moved to LA. He now lives there with his beautiful wife Mashica, and sons Jedi and Messiah. In 2012 Dontae was awarded the Young Maestro Award from The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University. In 1996 Dontae was awarded the Marvin Hamlisch Search For A Star Award. In 1992 Dontae was awarded the Jon Faddis Musical Merit Award.
Dontae has toured with: Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Jill Scott, Queen Latifah, Common, Neyo, D’Angelo, Christina Aguilera, Lauryn Hill, and Snoop Dogg. He designed his own custom trumpet the “Winslowdynasty Model” by Adams Instruments and was featured on their international Magazine cover.
In addition Dontae is a jazz improvisation, music production, film composing and performance clinician for such esteemed institutions as the Berklee School of Music, the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.