Award-winning jazz bassist and Oakland University faculty member Marion Hayden has been named as the 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist. (Photo courtesy Erin Kirkland)
March 10, 2025
Award-winning jazz bassist and Oakland University faculty member Marion Hayden has been named as the 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist. This prestigious honor includes a $100,000 prize and is presented annually to artists in recognition of a lifetime of dedication to their field and the community.
In addition to the monetary prize, the award also includes the creation of a short film which documents and celebrates Hayden’s work and lifetime of achievements, as well as a monograph published by The Kresge Foundation.
“It means so much that my work has been recognized, it’s like getting a great big hug from the cultural community,” said Hayden, an applied instructor of jazz bass at OU. “Several of the previous Eminent Artists are mentors and some of the best musicians any city has produced – trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, saxophonist Wendell Harrison, harpist Patricia Terry Ross. I am humbled to be in their company and receive such a prestigious award.”
Hayden was enjoying lunch at her favorite sushi restaurant, Noble Fish in Clawson, when she learned she’d been selected to receive the honor.
“I was picking up sushi when I got the call,” she said. “They asked me if I was sitting down, I said ‘I’m fine.’ I figured they were just calling to get a contact number for someone since I had done projects for them, here and there, over the years. When I was informed that I was the new Eminent Artist, I think I said ‘wow’ about 17 times, then I said ‘I think I’m going to have to sit down.’ I was totally surprised; I had no idea that I was even nominated since it’s a closed process.”
Hayden is the third jazz musician and the first of her generation to receive the award.
“Like Wendell Harrison and the late Marcus Belgrave before her, (Hayden) upholds and extends a rich Detroit legacy as an artist and generously passes on to younger musicians what has been passed on to her,” said Kresge President Rip Rapson. “And, like all our Kresge Eminent Artists, she exemplifies how the arts ground and build a community, manifesting the powers of creativity to connect us.”
Hayden began performing jazz at the age of 15, but her passion for music began even earlier.
“I attended Detroit Public School and started on cello at age 9 and switched to bass violin at age 12,” she said. “I received excellent training and was an avid young orchestral player. My father was a huge jazz buff. I heard a lot of great jazz records, which I truly loved. My parents enrolled me in a summer youth jazz program and I was bitten by the jazz bug.”
Since then, Hayden has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Lester Bowie, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Frank Morgan, Jon Hendricks, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Willis, Sheila Jordan, Mulgrew Miller, Annie Ross, and many others.
Her creative practice centers around her ensemble, Legacy. Formed in 2003, Legacy performs original and narrative driven compositional works within the framework of improvised music with an emphasis on African diasporic music traditions.
Hayden is also the co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble, Straight Ahead, the first all-woman jazz ensemble signed to Atlantic Records.
“I have spent many years performing, touring, composing and teaching,” she said. “Detroit and its people are my muse and inspiration, it is a privilege to be from this great city.”
Widely recognized as an advocate for the preservation of cultural and artistic legacy, Hayden was honored in 2016 for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship, a fellowship and grant awarded to an elite group of creative artists. She received a 2023 New Music USA composition grant and in 2022 was honored with the Ron Brooks Award from the Southeast Michigan Jazz Association.
In 2019, Hayden received an Art X Grant and a Creators of Culture Grant for original musical works. She was artistic director for a 2018 Knight Arts Foundation Grant encouraging young women in jazz and a recipient of the Jazz Hero Award, a national award given by the Jazz Journalists Association that recognizes people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement.
As an arts advocate, Hayden has served as grant panelist for the Detroit Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Art-Ops, and the Highland Park Arts and Culture Commission. She also serves as panelist or consultant for South Arts, Detroit Sound Conservancy, Charles Wright Museum of African American History, the Kresge Foundation, Jazz Education Network, Chamber Music America and the McKnight Foundation.
A passionate advocate for youth music education, Hayden is the Geri Allen Collegiate Lecturer in the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan and served as the 2023 ensemble director for the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Ensemble for the Jazz Education Network.
“I have been most fortunate to work with Marion Hayden in a wide range of music ensembles over many years,” said Mark Stone, professor of music at Oakland University. “She consistently brings the highest level of artistry and creativity to every rehearsal and performance, elevating the experience for everyone involved. Given her passion for mentoring the next generation of musicians, I was overjoyed when she joined our faculty at Oakland University. I am incredibly grateful to have her as a colleague at OU and I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the 2025 Kresge Eminent Artist Award than Professor Marion Hayden.”
To learn more about the Kresge Eminent Artist Award, visit https://kresge.org/news-views/kresge-eminent-artists.