Jessica Valiente holds a B.A. in music from Barnard College in conjunction with Manhattan School of Music, an M.A. in music performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music (Queens College, City University of New York), and a D.M.A. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is a 2014-2015 recipient of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Dissertation Fellowship for her dissertation on Cuban charanga bands in New York City from 1960-2000. She specializes in the performance of both vernacular and popular music of Latin America, Latin jazz and straight-ahead jazz, historical performance practice, and traditional global flutes. Her major flute teachers were Harold Bennett, Robert Stallman, and Bernard Goldberg. She studied jazz and Latin flute improvisation with Frank Wess, Mauricio Smith, Dave Valentin, and Mark Weinstein; baroque flute and historical flutes with Michael Lynn. She has toured, performed, and recorded with ensembles specializing in the music of southern Italy, Spain, Brazil, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. She has been the director of the Latin jazz ensemble Los Mas Valientes since 1995, with whom she has released five full-length albums. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The National Cathedral (DC), Brookhaven Amphiteater (LI), Hostos Center for Culture and the Arts, The 92nd Street Y, The Gaillard Center (Charleston), New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, Heinz Hall (Pittsburgh), Baltimore Symphony Hall, The Hartford Jazz Festival, Caramoor Center for the Arts, and more. She has previously lectured in music at John Jay College, Baruch College, University of Bridgeport, The New School, Mercy College, Montclair State University, and has taught flute at Brooklyn College (CUNY), Montclair State University, and The New School.