Press Release – New York, NY, February 16, 2017: The ASCAP Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. The program was established in 2002 to encourage young gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30. It carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of the Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi-year financial commitment to support this program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 15 to 30, and are selected through a juried national competition.
The ASCAP Foundation President, Paul Williams said, “We congratulate the recipients of our Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards and thank the ASCAP composers who selected the winners. We are honored to partner with the Herb Alpert Foundation to recognize these talented young jazz creators.”
Alpert Young – Credit Andreas Neumann 2010
The 2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients are listed with their age, current residence and place of birth. The youngest winners are listed with their age and state of residence: Emily Bear,age15 of Illinois; Annie Booth,age 27 of Denver, CO; Michael Conrad, age 28 of Greeley, CO (Arlington Heights, IL); Gizem Gokoglu, age 30 of New York, NY (Izmir, Turkey); Andrew Karboski, age 22, of New York, NY (Seattle, WA); Gene Knific, age 24 of Chicago, IL (Kalamazoo, MI); David Leon, Age 23 of Miami, FL; Scott Ninmer, age 27 of Arlington, VA (Decatur, IL); Luca Mendoza, age 18 of California; Christopher Misch-Bloxdorf, age 25 of Milwaukee, WI (Kenosha, WI); Kai Ono, age 21 of Lawrence, KS (Granada Hills, CA); Chris Ott, age 29, of Brooklyn, NY (Kettering, OH); Robert Perez, age 24 of Chino Hills, CA (Covino, CA); Lucas Pino, age 29 of New York, NY (Phoenix, AZ); Diego Joaquin Ramirez, age 27 of Woodside, NY (Cork, Ireland); Nikos Syropoulos, age 28 of Los Angeles, CA (State College, PA); Zan Tetickovic, age 25 of Long Island City, NY (Ptuj, Slovenia); Matt Wong, age 18 of New York, NY (San Francisco, CA), and Christopher Zuar, age 29 of New York, NY.
Composers receiving Honorable Mention this year are: Lucas Apostoleris, age 23 of Miami, FL (New Milford, CT); Mario Castro, age 28 of New York, NY (Humacao, Puerto Rico); Andrew Leung, age 15 of California; Gina Ramirez, age 19 of Los Angeles, CA; Jordan Seigel, age 28 of Sherman Oaks, CA (Los Angeles, CA); Sara Sithi-Amnuai, age 22 of Los Angeles, CA (Sydney, Australia); and Andrew Van Tassel, age 28 of New York, NY (Short Hills, NJ).
The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2017 competition were: Anat Cohen, Keyon Harrold, and Yosvany Terry.
The Newport Festival Foundation will feature one of the recipients of the Herb Alpert Awards during the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival in August.
Additional funding for this program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.
About The Herb Alpert Foundation
The Herb Alpert Foundation, a non-profit, private foundation established in the early 1980’s, makes significant annual contributions to a range of programs in the fields of Arts, Arts Education and Compassion and Well Being. Its funding is directed toward projects in which Herb and Lani Alpert and Foundation President Rona Sebastian play an active role. [The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.]
About The ASCAP Foundation
Founded in 1975, The ASCAP Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education, talent development and humanitarian programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops, grants, scholarships, awards, recognition and community outreach programs. The ASCAP Foundation is supported by contributions from ASCAP members and from music lovers throughout the United States. www.ascapfoundation.org
