NEC Musicians Receive Gigs, Awards, Competition Prizes, Commissions
George Li at President Woodcock's Inauguration
NEC pianist Alex Brown ‘09 and trumpeter Jason Palmer ‘07 will be performing at the 2008 Tanglewood Jazz Festival this coming August. The two will be appearing as part of the popular Jazz Café, an informal cabaret style venue that features emerging talent such Brown’s Trio and Jason Palmer’s Quintet.
Palmer is considered to be one of the most talented young trumpet players today. In the last two years he has performed with The Greg Osby Five, and saxophonist Matana Roberts. He has preformed across the world at major Jazz festivals in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, France, Malta, and the Netherlands. Grammy Award winning trumpeter Nicholas Payton has said of Palmer, “Of all the young cats on the trumpet today, Jason Palmer is certainly one of the most talented of the bunch. The thing I really dig about him is that not only has he dealt with the tradition, but that he's not afraid to take chances.”
An acclaimed Jazz pianist, Brown was the winner in the Jazz Soloist category of Downbeat Magazine's Student Music Awards, along with receiving two Honorable Mentions from the ASCAP Foundation in their annual Young Jazz Composer Awards. In 2007 Brown joined the group of nine-time Grammy-Award-winner Paquito D’Rivera. In 2004, Alex was the youngest member ever accepted into the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers’ Workshop in New York City, which he attended for a year.
In addition to the Jazz Café, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced that vocalists Nnenna Freelon and pianist Mulgrew Miller will also be part of the 2008 lineup as well. The festival will also include a live taping of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on National Public Radio and will be celebrating the Jazz legend’s 90th birthday.
The Jason Palmer Quintet is set to perform Saturday, August, 30, and the Alex Brown Trio is set to perform on Sunday, August 31.
George Russell, conceptualist, composer, orchestra leader, McArthur Fellow, NEA Jazz Master, two-time Guggenheim Fellow, and one of the earliest teachers of the New England Conservatory’s Jazz Department, was recently honored by the Jazz Journalists Association along with NEC alumna Regina Carter ‘82. Both are 2008 Jazz Award winners, Carter won Strings Player of the Year, and Russell was named to the “A Team” of activists, advocates, altruists, aiders, and abettors of jazz.
Carter is a violinist who began her jazz career at NEC. As a freshman she studied classical violin but by her second year had switched to the school’s jazz curriculum after sitting in on gigs with friends in the jazz department. Carter released her first album in 1995 and has released seven more since then.
Russell is considered one of jazz’s only major theorists, and is a major influence on the evolution of modern jazz. In 1953, he created the Lydian Chromatic Concept. It was the first theory to explore the vertical relationship between chords and scales, and was the only original theory to come from jazz. Russell began teaching at NEC in 1969 at the request of long time friend and at the time NEC president Gunther Schuller.
George Li, 12 year old NEC Preparatory School pianist has won the second place silver medal and $5,000 at the 2008 Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition (Ages 11-13) finals in Salt Lake City, Utah. Li competed against 31 other pianists who were selected from all over the world. He studies at NEC with Wha-Kyung Byun.
In the Young Artists division of the Bachauer competition (Ages 14-18), Kenric Tam placed second. Tam will join the NEC-Harvard joint degree program this fall. He too will study with Wha-Kyung Byun.
The competition was named for the late Greek concert pianist Gina Bachauer who preformed frequently with the Utah Symphony. The competition celebrated its 32nd year of operation this year.
NEC alumni Adam Levin ’08 M.M. and Michael Unterman ‘08 have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student scholarships to Spain for Musical Instrument Training. Levin and Unterman are among 1,450 U.S citizens who will travel abroad for the 2008-2009 academic year through the Fulbright program.
Unterman, a cellist, who graduated in May studied with Laurence Lesser at NEC. Levin, a guitarist, received his Masters from NEC in May and studied with NEC faculty member Elliot Fisk. While at NEC, Levin was also awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, for innovative community work in the Boston area.
The Fulbright award was established in 1946, and has since provided opportunities to over 286,500 students, scholars, and teachers world wide. Among its most distinguished alumni are: Muhammad Yunus, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006; Javier Solana, Foreign Policy Chief, European Union; Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University; Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation; and Shamshad Akhtar, the first woman to hold the position of Governor, State Bank of Pakistan
Stephen Feigenbaum, who studied at NEC Prep School until 2007, was commissioned to write a new work, for the first carbon neutral concert in Boston. His “Speak, Sing, Whale” will be performed July 16 by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra as part of the Landmarks Festival at the Hatch Shell. Feigenbaum’s composition features “sample recordings of whale sounds with a lush chamber orchestration that evokes ocean waves” according to Feigenbaum. The 19-year old composer studied composition with NEC’s Rodney Lister. Lister himself is an esteemed musician who has received commissions, grants, fellowships, and awards from the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood), the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and many more.
Feigenbaum’s composition will be part of a program titled “Green Masterpieces” and will be performed as part of the orchestra’s free concert series on the Charles River Esplanade.