Elena Pinderhughes

Elena Pinderhughes is redefining what the flute can be in contemporary music. An award-winning flutist, vocalist, composer, and songwriter, the Bay Area-raised, Manhattan School of Music-trained artist moves across jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and orchestral settings with a fluency that has led The Guardian to call her the most exciting and creatively assured jazz flutist to have emerged in years. Her instrument is not an ornament in these contexts. It is a lead voice, carrying the same weight and authority as any horn or human vocal.

Pinderhughes’s range of collaborators speaks to the breadth of her artistry. She has performed alongside Herbie Hancock, Chief Adjuah, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Terrace Martin, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Kenny Barron, Vijay Iyer, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Future, while also working with Victoria Monét, Cynthia Erivo, Giveon, and Jordan Ward. Her stages include Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White House, Coachella, Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreux, Newport, and North Sea Jazz.

Her reach extends into film and recorded music with equal force. She contributed to the Academy Award-nominated score for American Fiction and has worked in Laura Karpman’s studio on HBO’s Duster. Her flute and vocal work appear on landmark releases including Chief Adjuah’s Stretch Music and Diaspora, Terrace Martin’s Impedance and Nintendo Soul, Common’s Black America Again, and Ambrose Akinmusire’s The Imagined Savior.

Now preparing solo releases that weave together her gifts as a flutist, vocalist, and songwriter, Pinderhughes stands at a pivotal moment. The world has heard what she can do in service of other artists’ visions; what comes next will be entirely her own.