Our Story

Milwaukee is home to a vibrant big band scene full of tremendously talented musicians. It’s easy to find high quality groups playing in the area nearly every week. As a local saxophonist and frequent freelancer, I realized that I was almost always either the only woman or one of two or three in the ensemble. I also noticed that many groups rarely programed the works of women composers and arrangers. If the book includes Benny Goodman, why not Mary Lou Wiliams? If it has Quincy Jones, why not Melba Liston?

The women pioneers of the genre, including Williams and Liston, fought for relevance, representation, and respect for decades. In this tradition, I wanted to form a group to pick up and advance this work in Milwaukee’s jazz community: to actively hire women musicians, regularly program the music of women composers and arrangers, and collaborate with educators to bring this representation to younger audiences.

In March of 2026, the future board members gathered to draft a mission statement and to choose a name for this ensemble. As we were brainstorming, two words kept reappearing in our discussions: joy and illuminate. The joy of playing, the joy of music, the joy of sharing, the joy of teaching. Illuminate: to highlight, to spotlight, to shine.

As we tossed around ideas for the name, we brought up goddesses (shout out to Artemis and DIVA), flowers (“What’s your Story, Morning Glory” by Williams), and jazz terminology (contrafacts). Over the course of an hour, we kept returning to Iris:

Iris, the flower that is culturally significant everywhere

Iris, the Greek goddess and messenger between two worlds

Iris, the part of the eye that controls how much light enters the pupil

Iris, the jazz orchestra joyfully dedicated to celebrating and amplifying women and femme artists through education and performance in the big band tradition.

Since then, we have officially formed our board, gained 501c3 status, rostered the band, and began preparations for our first educational and performance events. Iris will host its debut concert on April 2, 2027, at Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin, which will be open to the general public. Opening acts for this concert include the UWM Youth Jazz Ensemble (UJAY) and the Nicolet High School Big Band. This concert will include a pre-programming workshop led by members of Iris, in collaboration with the Nicolet HS Big Band, led by Michael McDowell.

We are excited and eager to do this work: to make Milwaukee’s big band scene more accessible to women musicians, illuminate the music of women and femme composers and arrangers that audiences may not yet have had the opportunity to hear, and build on the rich tradition of jazz education in this city.

And we do so joyfully.

~Rosemary

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