Marilyn Lester is a critic/reviewer, writer on jazz, cabaret, popular music and theater for the New York City Jazz Record, NiteLife Exchange and Theater Pizzazz. She’s also a creative producer of live stage events, small and large. Additionally, Marilyn is currently working on several theater works in development,
She is Vice President of the Board and Program/Producing Chair of the Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project and Secretary of the Board of the American Popular Song Society, where she produces the annual Jazz Month program. Formerly, she was a Board Member and newsletter editor of The Duke Ellington Society of New York TDES), which ceased operating in 2021—but she has continued to be active in the international Duke Ellington Study Group and its conferences.
For several years she was the Executive Director of the Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, working closely with Mercedes Ellington in all aspects of the organization’s functioning. She later founded and was Executive Director of the American Songbook Association.
Marilyn is a graduate of New York University, studying journalism, and upon graduation was an associiate editor for McGraw-Hill’s now defunct magazine division. Freelace work then followed, a path that took her in many directions with many clients, as well as to a parallel path in theater, from playwriting to dramaturgy, and then into film scriptwriting and creative producing. Marilyn also worked with legendary television pioneer, Alvin Cooperman, developing potential TV shows.