(Kaitlin Newman/The Banner) The 27-year-old musician grew up performing in her church and blends that influence with hip-hop and other stylings to create her own evolution of jazz After seven years studying and performing music in Detroit, New York City and beyond, Sequoia Snyder considers it a blessing to be back in her Bowie home.
She runs through keyboard exercises in solitude in the corner of her bedroom. And she sits at the same piano she’s been playing since high school in her family’s recreation room while corralling her young niece from running around.
“I can’t quite put it into words,” Snyder, 27, told The Banner on the porch of her family’s home. “Just to be able to be there for my family and spend time with them … because they’re probably the closest people to me in my life. So, I mean, it’s done wonders for my mental health.”
It’s been the start the up-and-coming artist wanted when she moved home with her parents in her effort this past year to plant her musical flag where it all began.
She was born in D.C., and the family moved to Florida for a good chunk of her childhood before moving back to Prince George’s County when she was 10. Snyder got into D.C.’s prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where her sister also attended and her mother worked as an English teacher, to study vocal performance. But a year later she got hooked on playing piano and switched her focus.
WASHINGTON – Virtually everyone can relate to being by themself in a crowd. That sense of solitude hit Sequoia “REDWOOD” Snyder during one of her frequent solo trips for a gig. While sitting at an airport gate a few years ago, Sequoia wrote “SOLUS,” a Latin word that means “alone” and is often used in stage directions.
She’ll release “SOLUS” on Friday, Aug. 21, during a stretch when crowds around her get larger. As a 2026 Next Jazz Legacy awardee, Sequoia will play at the D.C. Jazz Festival on Sept. 5, before headlining at the Detroit Jazz Festival the next day. A couple weeks later, Sequoia will play in Los Angeles during the 2026 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert for one of her mentors, Patrice Rushen.
The success being enjoyed this year has carried over from last year, when Sequoia was bandleader for shows at the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Center. Growing exposure led to her earning the NJL award (founded by NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington). Sequoia will promote “SOLUS” and other songs on an upcoming project during a multi-state tour later this fall.
A gifted pianist and composer who’s noted for her individuality and style, she blends contemporary jazz vibes with assorted Black music genres. She has performed with esteemed musicians such as Rodney Whitaker, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kenny Barron, Cory Henry, and even popular R&B band The Internet. “When I can’t do a gig, I always recommend Sequoia,” says mentor Jason Moran, Artistic Director of Jazz at the Kennedy Center.
Before studying jazz, she was heavily influenced by gospel, R&B, hip-hop, funk, soul and pop music while growing up. Her eclectic tastes led her to arrange and perform DMX’s “Who We Be,” a 2025 single. “I wrote it for a Black History Month recital,” she says. “I like the melody and the rawness that he communicates about the tough parts of the Black experience.”
Her latest single explores the intricacies of being unaccompanied in crowds, using a smooth, odd-timed vamp and high-octane swing. The song expresses the complex, dual emotions of seclusion. Considering the pace of her burgeoning musical career, Sequoia gladly makes space for alone time.
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Click here to preview “SOLUS.” Contact Deron Snyder to book Sequoia or arrange an interview. Follow @redwoodsounds on social media for upcoming performances and other news.
Stakeholders within the rail industry had long complained about Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel before Keith Davis joined CSX as a conductor in 2011. The 1.7-mile tunnel was completed in 1895 (and extended in 1985), over time becoming a vital artery in America’s transportation network. But it was decades behind the times, a source of frustration for everyone involved.
“When I first got hired, that’s what some of the talk was,” said Davis, who’s now CSX Superintendent of the Central East Zone. “I kept hearing about how the Howard Street Tunnel would be expanded.”
Decades of talk didn’t result in action before he left CSX, whose rails in Baltimore were a century-old bottleneck along the I-95 corridor. But after several years of negotiations between Maryland, CS and the Federal Railroad Administration, officials broke ground on the Howard Street Tunnel in November 2021. Davis rejoined the company in 2024, partaking in the tunnel’s last stages before it reopened in September 2025.
“I put in some work on understanding what we need to do, and the impact it was going to have on our customers and the community around us,” he said. “I had about two weeks to make a whole intermodal facility for us and keep the traffic volumes flowing in and out of Baltimore. That was a huge part of the success I feel about the project.”
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