Marcus Gilmore (born 1986) was inspired by the music of his grandfather, legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, who gave him his first set of drums at age 10. He is currently in his senior year at the LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts in New York City. Marcus received the Wynton Kelly Foundation Award, The Wyoming Seminary PAI Best Instrumentalist Award, the Essentially Ellington Best Drum Solo Award, Vail Jazz Festival Ella Fitzgerald Scholarship and the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony. He performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Monterey High School Jazz Band Japan Tour and the Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY High School Jazz Ensembles. In 2003, Marcus performed in Bern, Switzerland as part of Clark Terry's "Young Titans of Jazz." The same band gave its New York debut at Birdland last fall. Marcus also loves Afro-Cuban Jazz and plays timbales and Latin percussion. He has performed with Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, John Clayton, and others, and has sat in with Chick Corea, Ray Barretto, Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon, and Roy Hargrove.