Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
Director Lynn Riley
- Phone: (215)895-4915
- Email: mcr27@drexel.edu
Ms. Riley was born in Washington, D.C., and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pa. Attending the University of Colorado, she was first introduced to jazz. Lynn became interested in exploring music from around the world, and transferred to the University of Hawaii where she received her B. A. in Ethnomusicology.
Kansas City was her next stop. Immersed in its rich jazz tradition, she continued her musical studies at the University of Missouri Kansas City, while apprenticing and playing with KC's legends. After 5 year's involvement with the Women's Jazz Festival in Kansas City, Mo., an international festival highlighting women musicians, she headed back east.
Since returning to Philadelphia, Lynn has played with many great artists, including Grover Washington Jr., Philly Joe Jones, Charles Earland, David Murray, and Johnny Pacheco, as well as leading her own groups. She was chosen to perform at the Painted Bride Arts Center for their series Women Leaders in Jazz in 2000.
More recently Lynn has been expanding her composing vocabulary and style by traveling and playing in countries such as Cuba, South Africa, France, and Bolivia.
Her proficiency has been recognized by the Trane Stop Resource Institute, which presented her with an award acknowledging her contribution in preserving Afro-American Classical Music.
She received a Window of Opportunity grant from the Leeway Foundation in 2004.
Lynn has been on the faculty at Drexel University since 1998. Her responsibilities include Director of the Fusion Ensemble, ear training, lecturing, and private instruction in saxophone, flute, and jazz improvisation. In addition, she has been instrumental musical director and conductor for several of the musical shows produced by Drexel's Theatre Department.