Jazz House Kids Founder Named 'Best Woman in Business'

Melissa Walker, president and founder of Jazz House Kids has been named by NJBIZ Magazine one of the Best Women in Business for 2014.  

The award honors New Jersey’s most dynamic women in business who stand out in their fields – women who share a commitment to professional excellence, to the community and to advocacy for women. 

The 2014 Best Women in Business were honored at an awards event on March 24 at the Palace at Somerset Park and are profiled in a special NJBIZ supplement in its March 31 issue. 

Walker is the visionary and pulse behind Jazz House Kids, a nationally recognized arts education and performance organization that bridges the gap in music education and transforms the lives of New Jersey’s young people, setting the stage for lifelong learning.  Over the past 11 years under Walker’s guidance, Jazz House Kids has brought music, mentoring, education and apprenticeship to more than 35,000 students from diverse backgrounds who have performed before more than half a million enthusiastic fans.

Walker also is celebrated as an internationally acclaimed jazz vocalist and recording artist.  In addition to five solo recordings of her own and numerous guest appearances, Walker is the featured soloist on bass virtuoso and bandleader Christian McBride’s 2012 Grammy Award-winning recording, The Good Feeling.

A graduate of Brown University, Walker completed an intensive Nonprofit Executive Fellows Program at Rutgers Business School in 2013.  Originally from Alberta, Canada, she and her husband, Christian McBride, live in Montclair.