Lenora Helm Hammonds

A Chicago native, Dr. Lenora Helm Hammonds (p/k/a Lenora Zenzalai Helm) is an acclaimed vocalist, composer, educator, and academic leader. She currently serves as Dean of the Professional Education Division at Berklee College of Music. Prior to this role, she spent nearly two decades at North Carolina Central University (2005–2024), where she was a tenured Full Professor, Chair of the Department of Music, and Director of Graduate Programs in Jazz Studies.

Dr. Hammonds’ four-decade career as a performing and recording artist includes nine solo albums—highlighted by her top-10 JazzWeek release, The Sistering—and guest appearances on over a dozen recordings. Her leadership extends to her big band, the Tribe Jazz Orchestra, where roughly half the roster features iconic women in jazz. A distinguished composer, she is a MacDowell Fellow and was the first vocal jazz recipient of the Chamber Music America/Doris Duke New Jazz Works composer award. Her conducting career spans over twenty years, including appearances as a guest conductor at Carnegie Hall (2024, 2026) and directing ensembles for Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Jack Rudin Collegiate Jazz Championship. Her honors include being named a GRAMMY Music Educator of the Year Quarterfinalist, receiving the Jazz Educator of Distinction award from the Jazz Music Awards Foundation, and induction into the Berklee Gospel Hall of Fame. She also serves on the Jazz Vocal Advisory Board at Juilliard Jazz, and recently delivered a standing-ovation keynote, United Through Music: An Exploration of How Music Binds Us Together, at the 2026 NAfME Annual Assembly.

Dr. Hammonds holds a B.M. in Film Scoring/Voice from Berklee, an M.M. in Jazz Performance from East Carolina University, and a D.M.A. in Music Education from Boston University. As an author and scholar working at the intersection of jazz, intercultural maturity, and digital humanities, her textbook, Sing Vocal Jazz, Teach Vocal Jazz (Routledge), spotlights twenty-three premier vocal jazz educators. Featured on TEDxBerklee Teachers (What Jazz Improv Can Teach You About Communication), she resides in Durham, NC, and Boston, MA, with her husband, Fred Hammonds. Learn more: www.LenoraHelm.com