FOUNDER - PROJECT DIRECTOR - LEAD ARTIST- EDUCATOR

Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes is an artist, arts educator, and Bay area native. Cited as “the most exciting jazz flautist to have emerged in years” by The Guardian, Elena works with a range of musicians as well as with her own groups. She has composed, performed, recorded, and toured with Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws , Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Christian Scott, Terri Lyne Carrington, Lionel Loueke, Orlando “Maraca” Valle, Josh Groban, Common, Future and others. She is currently working on her debut album, which showcases her unique voice and flute playing and compositional style and brings her musicality, harmony, rhythm, and culture to create a very specific sound all her own. 

 

Elena started studying music from a young age and it was precisely her experiences as a young woman of color in the arts that inspired her to create the Girls Empowerment Through the Arts (GETA) program as she reflected on how she and many of her peers struggled to make sense of the negative stereotypes and messages they received from popular culture, teachers, and society more broadly. 

 

Elena created the GETA program to empower girls of color to develop and enhance the skills they need to navigate personal and societal challenges, particularly, but not limited to challenges associated with systemic, structural, institutional racism, racial inequality and injustice. The GETA program provides girls of color (ages 13-17) with an opportunity to use artistic practices to develop and deepen their ability to express themselves, feel the power of their voice, build confidence, self esteem, positive ideas and feelings about themselves, and leadership skills.  

 

Elena is deeply committed to music and arts education. She is currently teaching middle and high school students in the Bay Area, working with San Francisco Jazz Education, Young Musicians Choral Orchestra in the East Bay, and Berkeley High School. In NYC she worked with elementary and middle school BIPOC students from households with low incomes with the Lincoln Center Jazz “Let Freedom Swing”Program for many years. She also has private students from around the world, many of whom are young girls struggling to find a place for themselves in the arts. Elena received her BFA from the Manhattan School of Music.

As a flautist and vocalist, Elena has won numerous awards including: “best soloist” at festivals and from Downbeat magazine, a YoungArts Gold Award recipient, U.S Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and Downbeat Magazine’s “Rising-Star Flutist. She has performed in numerous venues, including: Carnegie Hall, the White House, the Kennedy Center, Monterey Jazz Festival, Marciac Festival, Coachella Music Festival, and Montreux Jazz Festival. She has performed in jazz festivals and clubs throughout Europe, Japan, Africa, South America, and the United States.