John Hasse

John Edward Hasse is a music historian, pianist, and award-winning author and record producer. He serves as curator of American music at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, where he was founding executive director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, an acclaimed big band, and where he founded the national Jazz Appreciation Month, celebrated every April throughout the US.

Hasse is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington and the editor of the major illustrated history Jazz: The First Century, with forewords by Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones. Library Journal called the book "a major contribution to the understanding of jazz."

At the Smithsonian, Hasse was co-director of America's Jazz Heritage, a 10-year, $7-million partnership with the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. He led the Institution's efforts to acquire the 200,000-page Duke Ellington archive and curated the traveling exhibition "Beyond Category: The Musical Genius of Duke Ellington." He also led the museum's initiative to acquire the archives of Ella Fitzgerald and co-curated the exhibition "Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song." He is editor of Ragtime: Its History, Composers, and Music; producer-annotator of the two-CD set Beyond Category: The Musical Genius of Duke Ellington; and producer-author of the book and three-disc set The Classic Hoagy Carmichael. He is a contributor to seven encyclopedias.

An expert on leadership, American music, and jazz, Dr. John Edward Hasse inspires audiences to reach for their own highest accomplishment in all fields. Has spoken on leadership to the World Bank, New York Life, the Cleveland Clinic, the American College of Healthcare Executives, the US Department of Education, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.