Berklee fires lauded trumpeter Nicholas Payton amid firestorm of bigoted speech accusations – WBUR

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The firing of a famed Berklee College of Music department leader, who for years repeatedly shared antisemitic social media posts, has ignited conversation over hiring practices at the elite school.
Berklee College of Music fired its brass department chair, Nicholas Payton, in April, just months after promoting him into the role last fall. Payton confirmed his termination to WBUR last week.
A spokesperson for Berklee confirmed he no longer works for the school. The spokesperson said the school does not discuss “personnel matters” and declined to comment further on his departure, his selection in 2021 as a visiting artist or his recent promotion.
Payton’s dismissal came the same month he reposted a racist and misogynistic Facebook screed by a former bandmate against up-and-coming New Haven jazz keyboardist Connie Han. It was one of several posts Payton shared during an online dispute between the two musicians, in which she wrote Payton “does not deserve his position at Berklee.” Payton said she also has called him misogynistic. Han did not respond to a request for comment.
In the wake of their digital spat, two conservative websites revealed that Payton had repeatedly shared or amplified antisemitic tropes and other hateful remarks against Jewish people for years.
As awareness of his posts grew, some members of the Berklee community wondered why Payton was hired in the first place.
Composer Marti Epstein, who has taught at Berklee for 35 years, said, “I never imagined this kind of 1930s-style antisemitism would be anything that I would have to [see] from a colleague.”
“Being a great place doesn’t mean having the biggest stars in administrative positions,” added Epstein, who said she was astonished that Berklee either failed to review or ignored Payton’s social media presence when he was hired or promoted.
In an interview, Payton said Berklee told him he was being let go for resharing the incendiary post insulting Han. He suspects that the school had ultimately fired him over the accusations of antisemitism.
Payton, 51, has long been known not just as a preeminent figure in modern jazz but also for his provocative commentaries about issues of race and culture, which he’s shared in interviews, on his now dormant blog and on social media.
Although he frequently headlines high-end jazz venues and festivals, Payton, who is Black, has called the term jazz a “slur” and prefers to label his creative endeavors BAM, as in Black American Music. He describes himself as a “social activist.”
Payton was elevated to chair of Berklee’s brass department in November 2024, a year after picking up his second Grammy. Up to that point, he had been teaching monthly lessons and master classes as part of his visiting artist position.
Drummer Ilya Blazh, who graduated with a master’s from Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute the summer before Payton’s promotion, said he was upset to learn about Payton’s dismissal. He said Payton was an excellent educator who was generous with advice during Blazh’s monthly “Apprentice’s Night” at Wally’s Café Jazz Club.
“He’s done so much for young musicians, for minorities, for women,” said Blazh.
Keyboardist Robert Glasper and pianist Aaron Parks were just two of the numerous jazz artists who posted their support for Payton on social media in the wake of his public internet spat with Han.
Others disagreed. Veteran singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman wrote a Substack essay saying Payton “spread deeply anti-Jewish slander and obscene conspiracies, the kind that have incited centuries of virulent anti-Jewish violence.”
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It’s not clear whether Berklee leaders saw any of his problematic social media posts before he was hired. A prolific poster, his content and comments included antisemitic tropes or false claims about Jewish people.
One video Payton posted to his Instagram in July 2020, at the height of protests over the murder of George Floyd, featured an unidentified speaker falsely claiming that most slave owners were Jewish, while making repeated references to the “synagogue of Satan” and Jews being “obsessed with blood,” a well-documented antisemitic fiction. “Katz Out The Bag, now!” wrote Payton underneath the video, which concluded with the logo of his Paytone Records label.
That same month, he wrote in a comment that Jews “still control a large portion of the media and entertainment industry. And I maintain their history in the music business has often been oppressive. Is it all Jews? No. It’s never all of anybody, but while we are assessing oppressive forces, it’s important to note.”
Payton told WBUR that in 2022 a group of Jewish students issued a formal complaint to Berklee administrators about him. He said in the interview that he was “absolved” in the matter. WBUR could not verify the complaint or its results.
The 2022 investigation was not brought up in his hiring a year later, he claims, adding he believes the Trump administration’s recent crackdown on universities it says fail to protect students from antisemitism essentially set the stage for his firing.
Berklee calls Payon’s account “factually incorrect.”
In his interview with WBUR, Payton doubled down, saying he “absolutely” stands by his past statements and posts to social media that fell under scrutiny, and in particular, his remarks about Jewish people in the entertainment industry.
Saxophonist and Berklee professor Jorrit Dijkstra bemoans that the school didn’t use the incident as a teaching moment.
While Dijkstra described Payton’s postings about Jewish people and Han as “toxic” “rantings,” he wishes those impacted by them could have “sat down around the table, face to face, and talked about hurt and trauma and very uncomfortable issues that are embedded in this case. … Berklee missed an opportunity.”
Dijkstra said there can be meaningful discussions about “generational traumas” between Black and Jewish communities in the entertainment and music industries.
Within weeks of Payton’s online duel with Han last month, a Change.org petition calling for Berklee to fire him had over 5,000 signatures.
“It’s all very unfortunate,” Payton told WBUR. “I was just starting to catch my stride.” He added that he felt there “was no due process in this whole situation.”
Payton is continuing his busy tour schedule. Last month, he appeared at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and last weekend, he was joined by Berklee graduate esperanza spalding at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. On Friday, he’ll perform at a Carnegie Hall-sponsored event in Queens.
As Berklee moves on, both Blazh and Dijkstra say they’re afraid the episode will stifle expression at a college whose mission is to teach exactly that.
For others, like Berklee’s Marti Epstein, the takeaway is simpler.
“I would say moving forward,” she said, “if you’re about to hire someone, even if they’re the most famous person in their field, look at their social media posts.”
Noah Schaffer is a contributor to WBUR's arts and culture coverage.
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