Heralded by the Village Voice for having New York City’s “most electrifying young lions in jazz,”, the Revive Big Band is a 20+ piece big band led by Igmar Thomas, current MD for Ms. Lauryn Hill, former bandleader for Nas. Combining jazz, hip-hop, funk, soul, blues & gospel, the band’s members are all-stars in their own right, collectively garnering 27 Grammy nominations and 13 Grammy wins between them.

Grounded in Black American Music, especially the jazz big band, the Revive Big Band redefines what the big band sounds like. Covered in nearly every major media outlet from the New York Times, to NPR, to Okayplayer, the Revive Big Band has performed all over the world and has collaborated with some of the greatest artists out there today, including Talib Kweli, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Common, Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter, Bilal, Robert Glasper, Pharoahe Monch, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Nicholas Payton, Terrence Blanchard, among many others.

Igmar Thomas is a visionary trumpeter, maestro, composer, arranger, and artistic director at the forefront of modern music. As the founder and conductor of the acclaimed Revive Big Band, his genre-defying sound has electrified stages from Carnegie Hall to the MTV VMAs. Igmar has served as Guest Conductor and Arranger for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and has arranged and music directed for legends including Ms. Lauryn Hill, Nas, LL Cool J, and Queen Latifah. He has performed with jazz greats such as Esperanza Spalding, Robert Glasper, Terence Blanchard, Gregory Porter, and Lionel Hampton. His original works and arrangements are performed by top institutions like Berklee, Brown, Purdue, the University of North Texas, and Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins. Currently, Igmar is the Artistic Director of Music & Music Education at Newark Symphony Hall, where he is developing a visionary new school of music. He also serves as Director of Music Operations at Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and Professor of Music at William Paterson University, leading an ecosystem of ensembles and youth-focused programs. His latest release, Like a Tree It Grows (2024), cements his place as a powerful voice in contemporary Black music and an architect of its future.