Artist: Brandee Younger

Brandee Younger is an American harpist who infuses classical, jazz, soul, and funk influences to the harp tradition pioneered by her predecessors and idols Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.

Younger leads her own ensemble, performs as a soloist and has worked as a sideman for such musicians as Pharoah Sanders, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Bill Lee and Reggie Workman, and other popular artists including Lauryn Hill, John Legend (Love in the Future), Common (Finding Forever), Ryan Leslie, Drake, Maxwell, The Roots, Moses Sumney and Salaam Remi.

Younger was featured on saxophonist Ravi Coltrane’s 2019 release, Soul Awakening. She recorded and toured with drummer and producer Makaya McCraven following the release of his 2018 album Universal Beings.

In April 2019, Younger's original composition "Hortense" was featured in the documentary Homecoming, by Beyoncé. The recording used was from an NPR Music Field recording released in 2013. Also in the spring of 2019, Younger was selected to present a spotlight performance on the second night of Quincy Jones' "Soundtrack of America", the series opening of The Shed in NYC, curated by Steve McQueen and Quincy Jones himself. She was also featured in the series-opening concerts, alongside Kelsey Lu and performed a feature with Moses Sumney. Her original work is also heard in the 2018 HBO TV series Random Acts of Flyness, by filmmaker and director Terence Nance.

Younger earned undergraduate degrees in Harp Performance and Music Business from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. While there, she was mentored by the faculty of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and African American Studies.

Her Brandee Younger Quartet debut EP, Prelude, was released in June 2011. Other albums include the EP Prelude, released in 2011, Live At The Breeding Ground, released in 2014, and Wax & Wane from 2016.

Younger has been featured as a soloist with The Harlem Chamber Players and has performed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Waterbury Symphony, Soulful Symphony, Ensemble Du Monde, Camerata New York and the Red Bull Artsehcro, a "non-conformist" orchestra.