Gregory Charles Royal

[1] [2] founder of the New York Jazz Film Festival, a former judge on America's Hot Musician.

[3][4] and the former artistic director of the American Youth Symphony (AYS) in Washington, D.C.[5] As a student at Howard University,[6] he received the 1982 DownBeat Magazine Student Music Award for Jazz Vocal Group: Graduate College Outstanding Performance in the Jazz Instrumental Soloist Category.

[10] He has appeared onstage as a trombonist with the Broadway shows Five Guys Named Moe[11] and Jelly's Last Jam.

[12] Royal has also written and appeared in a play God Doesn't Mean You Get To Live Forever, presented in March 2012 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center,[13] and in 2022 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York.

[14] The December 2012 production was mounted as a series of performances in New York at the Baruch Performing Arts Center starring Gregory Charles Royal, Frenchie Davis (in the role of "Reese Noel") and The Reverend Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. as himself.