From KUTX:
The Huston-Tillotson Jazz Orchestra was formed in 2022 as Huston-Tillotson University’s premier student jazz ensemble. Led by Dr. Jeremy George, director of Jazz Studies, the orchestra delivers high-energy performances rooted in traditional jazz — driven by groove, swing and expressive improvisation.
The ensemble was founded at Austin’s oldest institution of higher learning and the city’s only historically Black university.
Established in 1875, Huston-Tillotson was created through the merger of Samuel Huston College and Tillotson College, two institutions founded after the Civil War to educate formerly enslaved people. Supported by the United Methodist Church and the American Missionary Association, the university became a cornerstone of Black higher education in Central Texas, serving generations of students through segregation and beyond.
While the university carries 150 years of history, the Huston-Tillotson Jazz Orchestra is still young and already building a national résumé.
The group has performed multiple times at the Austin City Limits Music Festival and earned top placements in jazz competitions. In 2025, out of more than 100 historically Black colleges and universities nationwide, Huston-Tillotson was one of 12 selected for a residency in Norfolk with Wynton Marsalis.
In 2026, the orchestra took the national stage at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, placing third at the National Collegiate Jazz Championship and walking away with more than 10 individual and sectional awards, placing them among the top collegiate jazz ensembles in the nation.
Rooted in 150 years of Black excellence and powered by the next generation of musicians, the Huston-Tillotson Jazz Orchestra is helping define the next era of jazz in Austin and across the nation.
