Librettist Howard Reich is the Emmy Award-winning writer-producer of three documentary films (including Prisoner of Her Past, which has aired on PBS more than 500 times in 140-plus markets). He’s also the author of seven books (including the forthcoming The Majesty of Chicago Jazz) and the ballet Kimiko’s Pearl. He covered music for the Chicago Tribune for 43 years, with a tenure as the newspaper’s staff jazz critic from 1989 to 2021. He holds two honorary doctorate degrees and served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Music four times, including the year when Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields became the first jazz composition to win (1997).