Sharel Cassity & Richard Johnson
Just Friends Jazz Series
Mon & Tue • November 10 & 11, 2025 • 7:30 pm
Pavilion
Saxophonist, composer and educator Sharel Cassity is a nationally acclaimed saxophonist prominent in the New York and Chicago jazz scenes. Named in Downbeat Magazine as “Rising Star Alto Saxophone” of 2023 with a cover story, Sharel has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Colbert Show, and she is in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and is a recipient of theASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. Sharel has worked with multi-Grammy Award-winning artists Jennifer Hudson, Natalie Merchant, Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Williams and Trisha Yearwood, among others. She has performed alongside NEA Jazz Masters as well as Grammy Award-winning artists Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath and Christian McBride, and has been a featured guest soloist with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. As a bandleader, Sharel’s five albums have received top-rated reviews in publications, like The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Downbeat, American Indian News and a cover feature in Saxophone Journal. She earned a master’s degree under full scholarship at The Juilliard School in New York and gives back to the next generation by teaching at DePaul University and Elgin Community College. Sharel is a current member of the Dizzy Gillespie Afro Latin Experience, Nicholas Payton’s TSO, and the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, while running her record label Relsha Music. Sharel is the director of her non-profit educational program Jazz Up and is a proud Yamaha and Vandoren performing artist.
Richard D. Johnson—born in Pittsburgh, home to jazz greats Art Blakey, Ray Brown, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Ahmad Jamal—has strong territorial jazz roots. He was first introduced to the piano at the age of five by his father, a gospel pianist from Baltimore, MD. Since then, he has cultivated a rich and pedigreed musical background, being schooled by some of the most legendary jazz musicians and studying at the most esteemed institutions of music. After receiving a scholarship and graduating from the Berklee College of Music in just two years, Richard entered the Boston Conservatory where he earned a master’s degree in jazz pedagogy in three semesters. He then went on to receive an artist-performance diploma at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at the New England Conservatory under the direction of the influential Ron Carter.
Read more
Richard was invited to become a member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, which he did from 2000 to 2003. He also played as part of the Russell Malone Quartet, Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet and The Bobby Watson Quartet. After completing his tenure with those groups, Richard started the Reach Afar program for young people ages 7–17, educating them about elements of jazz in hip hop.
Richard has traveled extensively, sharing the gift of jazz to audiences around the world. As a representative of the United States through the U.S. State Department, he was named U.S. Musical Ambassador. During that time, he did six state-department tours that took him to Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East, affording him the opportunity to perform in more than 76 countries. Richard has also accompanied such jazz icons as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Heath, and recently, Stevie Wonder.
As an associate jazz professor at Peabody Conservatory of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, he also serves as the piano instructor for the Ravinia Jazz Program and Jazz Up in Chicago. Richard is an accomplished composer and arranger with eight musical releases as a leader. His latest release, No Voy a Parar, is a salsa recording made in Colombia and features J. Cadenas, former member of Grupo Niche. Look out for his Music is Business…What is this podcast as well on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes. Richard is a Yamaha-endorsed piano artist.
