By Matt Micucci
Paul Williams, president of the ASCAP Foundation and George Wein, founder and chairman of the Newport Jazz Festival, announced a new joint effort to benefit emerging jazz talent.
The festival has in fact agreed to feature a performance by one of the recipients of the 2016 ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Audience Composer Awards.
Founded in 1975, The ASCAP Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting and encouraging American music creators through music education, talent development and humanitarian programs.
The awards were established by the ASCAP Foundation in 2002, with the goal to encourage gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30. The program 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 unique program.
The recipients, who receive cash awards, are selected through a juried national competition. The deadline for entering the 2016 competition is December 10, 2015.
George Wein became aware of the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards last June and was impressed enough with the quality of the music to provide this opportunity to one of the winners.
Wein said: “We are very happy to have this association with The ASCAP Foundation and I have a great deal of respect for Herb Albert and his foundation and what it has done for jazz.”
The performance will take place at the 2016 Newport Jazz Festival (July 29-31, 2016) on the Festival’s Storyville stage.