Ars Nova Workshop presents rising trumpet star Brandon Woody, celebrating his Blue Note Records debut, at Solar Myth on Friday, May 16.

Trumpeter/composer Brandon Woody was referred to as an “artist on the rise” by the Baltimore Sun in 2015 at the age of 17. Since then, he has gone on to become an international artist, performing with his band UPENDO, curating projects for major museums, film scoring, performing at major venues and institutions around the globe, and now making his debut on the legendary Blue Note Records. Woody studied with Ambrose Akinmusire at Manhattan School of Music and has performed with a genre-spanning array of artists including Solange, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marc Cary, Sean Jones, Plunky, Danilo Pérez, Lalah Hathaway, Robert Glasper, Bilal and others. He has also produced and arranged horns for Emma Vie, Sudan Archives, Tye Tribet, Miranda Curtis,Slauson Malone, Kevin Sinatra and Klein and several others. Woody uses music as a tool for healing, genuine connection and celebrating community. UPENDO, which means “love” in Swahili, is a sextet founded, Woody explains, so that he and his bandmates could “ play the music that we wanted to play, which was Black music…. all I’m trying to do with this music is to make space for, and spread, love.”