Endea Owens

Known as one of Jazz’s most vibrant emerging artists, Endea Owens is a Detroit-raised recording artist, bassist, and composer. She has been mentored by Jazz Icons the likes of Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, and Ron Carter. She has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross, Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jon Batiste, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Steve Turre, to name a few.

In 2018, Owens graduated from The Juilliard School, and joined the Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a member of the house band, Stay Human. Since then, Owens has won an Emmy, a Grammy, and a George Foster Peabody Award. Owens’s work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy Award-winning album We Are, Oscar Award-nominated film Judas and the Black Messiah, and H.E.R’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance.

Owens has a true passion for philanthropy and teaching. She has taught students across the United States, South America, and Europe. In 2020, Endea founded the Community Cookout, a non-profit organization birthed out of the Covid-19 pandemic that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods in New York City. To date, Owens’s organization has helped feed close to 3,000 New Yorkers and has hosted over a dozen free music concerts.

In 2022, Owens composed an original piece about the life of Ida B. Wells entitled Ida’s Crusade for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and was also performed by the NYO Carnegie Hall Orchestra. Owens has written for brands such as Pyer Moss and Glossier. Owens is set to premiere a newly commissioned work with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and will serve as the 2023 MAC Music Innovator with the organization. In addition, to her work with the Cinncinati Symphony Orchestra, Owens is the curator for the National Arts Club and also a fellow for “Jazz is Now!” with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, where she presents original compositions, curates series, and headlines performances for the 2022-2023 season. Owens’s debut album Feel Good Music released in early 2023.