Cecile McLorin Salvant

Could this 23-year-old jazz prodigy be the next big thing? Since Cecile McLorin Salvant walked away with first place in the 2012 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition (which is like winning the Oscar for jazz), the buzz was instantaneous. Not only was she the youngest finalist ever, but also a mystery woman, born in Miami to a French mother and a Haitian father and trained in France. Wynton Marsalis says she has it all: “Poise, elegance, sensuality, power, virtuosity, range, insight, intelligence, depth and grace.” And at her New York debut, The New York Times went even further: “If anyone can extend the lineage of The Big Three—Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald—it’s this virtuoso.”