2025 Phoebe Jacobs Honoree

Rosanne Cash

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One of the country’s pre-eminent singer-songwriters, Rosanne Cash has released 15 albums of extraordinary songs that have earned four Grammy Awards and 12 additional nominations.

Cash is also an author whose four books include the best-selling memoir Composed, which the Chicago Tribune called “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.” Her essays have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Oxford American, The Nation. Her most recent book, Bird on a Blade (2018), was published by University of Texas Press, combining images by acclaimed artist Dan Rizzie with Cash’s lyrics.

In addition to regular touring, Cash has partnered in programming collaborations with Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Library of Congress. In 2017–2018, she was a resident artistic director at SFJAZZ and continued her partnership with them through the 2022/23 season. She was also the inaugural Americana artist-in-residence at NYU Steinhardt in 2021-2022. Along with many other honors and awards, Cash received the 2021 Edward MacDowell Medal, awarded since 1960 to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to American culture. She is the first woman composer to receive this prestigious honor. Last year she was elected as an American Honorary Member into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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John Leventhal

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During his 45-year career as a six-time Grammy-winning musician, John Leventhal has served as producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, recording engineer, and solo artist.

Born in New York City, Leventhal began his career in the late 1970’s playing guitar in dozens of NYC area bands including those led by Billy Vera, Steve Forbert and Levon Helm. By the early 1980’s he had developed songwriting partnerships with Shawn Colvin and Jim Lauderdale which led to his producing their debut albums. This was followed by albums he produced for an array of artists including Marc Cohn, William Bell, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Joan Osborne, Sarah Jarosz, and many others. John has also enjoyed an extraordinary musical collaboration with his wife, Rosanne Cash, producing and co-writing songs for all her albums since 1993. As a guitar player he has recorded and performed with Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Willie Nelson, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen and recently, The National.

 

Leventhal has been a Grammy winner in five consecutive decades, including as a co-writer and producer on Shawn Colvin’s 1998 smash “Sunny Came Home,” Cash’s moody The River and the Thread, and Stax legend William Bell’s sublime 2016 album This Is Where I Live. Presently, he’s collaborating with Cash on a musical version of Norma Rae.