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Sharel Cassity (Chicago, IL) is an internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist nearing two decades of global performance as a bandleader and sideman with the jazz industry’s top artists. Named “Rising Star Alto Saxophone, 2023” by Downbeat Magazine, Sharel appears on the cover of Downbeat Magazine, Saxophone Journal, has performed on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and is in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
Sharel is a current member of the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience and has performed with Grammy-winning artists Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Ingrid Jensen, Michael Dease, Lewis Nash, Terell Stafford, Orrin Evans, Michel Camilo, Darcy James Argue, as well as NEA Masters Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Heath, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Chambers, James Moody, and Slide Hampton, among others. Sharel has toured 24 countries and performed at leading venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival, headlining at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Sharel has six nationally acclaimed albums as a leader and three collaborations with groups Altoizm, Precarious Towers, and the all-female group, Alliance. In mainstream genres, Sharel has worked with Jennifer Hudson, Aretha Franklin, and Natalie Merchant, among others.
Sharel attended The Juilliard School under full scholarship for her Master’s degree. Her BFA is from the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, and she is a recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award.
A passionate educator, Cassity established the non-profit 501(c)(3) educational program Jazz Up to expose students to the professional jazz world. Currently an adjunct jazz professor at DePaul University and Elgin Community College, Cassity lives in the Chicago area with her husband and son and is a proud Yamaha and Vandoren Performing Artist.