ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams has announced the recipients of its 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. The recipients will be honored during the organization's Jazz Wall of Fame at a date to be announced.
Established by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation in 2002, the awards are given to encourage composers up to age 30 to continue creating jazz pieces. The program, obviously, carries the name of trumpeting great Herb Alpert and recognizes the foundation's multi-year financial commitment to support this unique institution.
The recipients will receive cash awards and range from ages 16 to 30. All applicants are selected through a juried national competition.
Paul Williams said of the awards, "Ingenuity and talent characterize all of our Young Jazz Composer honorees. The future of jazz has never sounded brighter. We congratulate the recipients and extend our gratitude to the dedicated panel of ASCAP composers who selected the honorees."
He continued, "We are delighted to partner with the Herb Alpert Foundation in this significant ongoing endeavor."
The 2015 recipients are listed below with their age, current place of residence and place of origin:
Caio Afiune, 25 of Boston, MA (São Paulo. Brazil); Quentin Angus, age 27 of New York, NY (Mount Pleasant, Australia); Bryson Barnes, age 29 of New York, NY (Fairbanks, Ak); Bryn Bliska, age 22 of Cambridge, MA (Greenbrae, CA); Lorenzo Carrano, age 27 of South Miami, FL (Naples, Italy);Mike Conrad, age 26 of Waterloo, IA (Arlington Heights, IL); Rafael Piccolotto de Lima, age 29 of Miami, FL (São Paulo. Brazil); Nick Finzer; age 26 of New York, NY (Rochester, NY); Jon Hatamiya, age 23 of Los Angeles, CA (Davis, CA); Josh Johnson, age 25 of Los Angeles, CA (Takoma Park, MD); Gene Knific, age 22 of Kalamazoo, MI; Pascal Le Boeuf, age 28 of New York, NY (Santa Cruz, CA); Guy Mintus, age 23 of New York, NY (Hod Hasharon, Israel); Adam Neely, age 26 of Brooklyn, NY (Silver Spring, MD); Mark Ninmer, age 16 of Taylorville, IL; Scott Ninmer, age 26 of Alexandria, VA (Taylorville, IL); Christopher Ott, age 27 of Brooklyn, NY (Kettering, OH); Josh Plotner, age 22 of Boston, MA (Park Ridge, IL); John Raymond, age 29 of Brooklyn, NY (Minneapolis, MN); Michael Schreier, age 23 of Greeley, CO (Omaha, NE); Erica Seguine, age 27 of Bloomfield, NJ (Albany, NY); Jeremy Siskind, age 28 of Kalamazoo, MI (Santa Ana, CA); David von Kampen, age 28 of Lincoln, NE (Farmington Hills, MI); Marcus Wilcher, age 30 of Austin, TX (Los Angeles, CA); Zac Zinger, age 26 of Woodside, NY (Pittsburgh, PA); Christopher Zuar, age 27 of New York, NY.
Composers receiving honorable mention this year are:
Colleen Clark, age 26 of New York, NY (Norwich, CT); ArcoIris Sandoval, age 27 of New York, NY (Tucson, AZ); Drew Zaremba, age 23 of Denton, TX (Little Rock, AR).
The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2015 competition were Chuck Iwanusa, Ted Piltzecker and Sachal Vasandani.
Additional funding for this program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.
And for now, here is some of Alpert and the Tijuana Brass below:
