Marion Hayden is the 2025 Kresge Foundation Eminent Artist — a yearly award given to artists who have made an outstanding career impact in the arts. Born in Detroit, Michigan, a crucible of jazz, Marion Hayden is one of the nation’s finest proponents of the acoustic bass. Mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, Hayden began performing jazz at the age of 15. She has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Lester Bowie, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Frank Morgan, Jon Hendricks, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Willis, Vanessa Rubin, Sheila Jordan, Mulgrew Miller, Annie Ross and many others. She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead- the first all-woman jazz ensemble signed to a major record label.

Widely recognized as a standard bearer of culture and artistic history, in 2016, Hayden was honored for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship – a one-year fellowship and grant award given to an elite group of creative artists. Hayden has received composition grants from New Music USA, Art X, Sidewalk Detroit, and CultureSource. She received a Jazz Hero Award, given by the Jazz Journalists Association, recognizing people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement. Hayden was presented with the Spirit of Detroit and the A.C.E. Medal of Excellence by the City of Detroit.

A passionate advocate for youth music education, Hayden is a co-founder of Sisters in Jazz, a program adopted nationally by the Jazz Education Network to encourage young women in the field of jazz. Expanding on this legacy, she has worked with the Geri Allen Jazz Camp – an all-woman jazz residency, Cincinnati Jazz Girls Day, and was Artistic Director for a Knight Arts Foundation Grant, encouraging young women in jazz. Hayden is the Geri Allen Collegiate Lecturer atthe  University of Michigan, Director of Jazz Ensembles at Oakland University, and holds artist residencies at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA, and Building Bridges with Music, Traverse City, MI.