A month before the 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the nonprofit organization that owns it has parted ways with its CEO.
Blake-Anthony Johnson was hired as CEO of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation in January 2025. An Atlanta native, he came to New Orleans from Chicago, where he most recently led the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra.
Johnson’s departure from the Jazz & Heritage Foundation after only 14 months on the job was a “mutual decision… as he transitions to other opportunities,” the foundation board’s President Rachel F. Cousin said in a statement…