NEW YORK ? The ASCAP Foundation on March 8 announced the recipients of the 2021 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards.
Established in 2002, the program recognizes gifted young 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 the program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, are selected through a juried national competition.
“We are grateful to the Herb Alpert Foundation for their long-standing partnership and financial support for this important program to help nurture the careers of talented young music creators,” said ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams. “Every year we look forward to hearing the innovative compositions from our Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients, who are the future of this vital art form. We congratulate and wish them enduring success.”
The 2021 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients are listed below with their age, current residence and place of origin. If under 18, only the age and state of residence is listed:
Clint Bleil, 26, of Pittsburgh, Penn.
Andy Clausen, 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (Seattle)
Strat?s (Eddie Codrington), 24, of Kalamazoo, Mich. (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
Michael Echaniz, 26, of Oakland (Berkeley)
Eliana Fishbeyn, 25, of New York City (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Ariel Sha Glassman, 24, of Denton, Texas (Columbus, Ohio)
Philip Ryan Goss, 28, Brookline, Mass. (Evanston, Ill.)
Jon Hatamiya, 29, of Sacramento (Davis)
Joseph Herbst, 25, of Easley, S.C.
Chase Kuesel, 27, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (Norwalk, Conn.)
Aditi Malhotra, 23, of Boston (New Delhi, India)
Luca Mendoza, 22, of Los Angeles
Lesley Mok, 26, of Brooklyn (San Mateo)
Yu Nishiyama, 26, of Hawthorne, N.J. (Yokohama)
Zach Rich, 27, of Greeley, Colo. (Wichita, Kan.)
Yoko Suzuki, 26, of Yokohama
Gary (Kaiji) Wang, 25, of Rochester, N.Y. (Beijing)
Alex Weitz, 30, of New York City (Tucson, Ariz.)
Matt Wong, 22, of New York City (San Francisco)
Courtney Wright, 26, of New York City (Woodbridge, Va.)
Composers receiving Honorable Mention this year are: Henry Godfrey, 24, of Jamaica Plain, Mass. (Silver Spring, Md.); Oliver Mann, 17, of California; Daiki Nakajima, 18, of San Jose; Hunter McKay, 24, of Boston (York, Maine); Yuma Uesaka, 30, of Brooklyn (London); and Andrew Watkins Alcocer, 24, of Rochester, N.Y. (Fresno).
Through a partnership with the Newport Festivals Foundation, one of this year’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards recipients will be featured by the Newport Jazz Festival.
The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2021 competition were Ambrose Akinmusire, Wycliffe Gordon and Jihye Lee.
Additional funding for the program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.