Davey S. Yarborough, a native Washingtonian, is an extraordinary musician and a dedicated educator of the arts. He is a distinguished composer, arranger, bandleader, and teacher. As a musician, he has worked with such notable artists as Sir Roland Hanna, Billy Eckstine, Buck Hill, Dr. Billy Taylor, Dizzy Gillespie, Shirley Horn, Lena Horne, Clark Terry, Benny Carter, James Moody and Joe Williams. He collaborated with trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis and performed on Marsalis’ Making the Music series on National Public Radio (NPR). As a teacher, Davey strives to endow his students with “the tools, resources, and nurturing needed to inspire them to dream, act, and attain.” He has served as president of the DC unit of the International Association for Jazz Education, and chaired the Instrumental music department for 15 of his 30 years at The Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.
In addition to leading his own quintet, he created The New Washingtonians Jazz Orchestra, with satellite orchestras at The Duke Ellington School of the Arts and The Washington Jazz Arts Institute. He has performed background music and soundtracks for TV shows and composed and arranged musical tributes. He is the co-founder and Artistic director of the Washington Jazz Arts Institute. Mr. Yarborough has received numerous awards and recognitions, including: “Jazz Educator of the Year” from the Berkeley Conservatory Jazz Education Network (2013); he was a semi-finalist for the 2013 Grammy’s “Music Educator of the Year” award; he received the Benny Golston Jazz Master’s Award (2014) given to distinguished Howard University Jazz Alumni; and he is a Lowell Mason Fellow of the National Association of Music Education. He recently received the Kennedy Center’s Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award. Davey joined the Bachelor-Benedict Club in 2016.