The New Jersey Jazz Society’s 2024 Scholarship Winners — pianist Lasse Corson, saxophonist Joseph Foglia, saxophonist Isaac Yi, and trumpeter Gabriel Chalick — will perform at the November 3rd Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert in Madison, NJ. They will be joined by four veteran professionals — guitarist/music director David O’Rourke, bassist Mary Ann McSweeney, drummer Alvester Garnett, and tenor saxophonist/flutist Don Braden.
Two of the scholarship winners are students at William Paterson University — Corson (photo above) and Foglia (top photo below). Corson, from Minneapolis, is the winner of the $1,000 award for Jazz Performance; Foglia, from Raleigh, NC, is the recipient of the $1,000 scholarship for Jazz Composition. Yi and Chalick graduated this year from Princeton University. Yi, (center photo below) from Leonia, NJ, won the $500 scholarship for Jazz Performance, and Chalick, (bottom photo below) from Naples, FL, was the recipient of the $500 award for Jazz Composition.
This summer, Corson attended the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency at the Kennedy Center. He began playing classical piano, but “the room for imagination and collaboration drew me in (to jazz) and away from the classical music I was studying before. Dr. David Demsey, William Paterson Coordinator of Jazz Studies, described Corsen as “a tremendous imaginative player who can react and excel in many musical situations.”
Foglia attended the Jazz Aspen Snowmass in Aspen, CO, playing in the Afro-Caribbean Big Band led by trumpeter Etienne Charles. This month, he’s performing with Charles’ Creole Soul band at the Keystone Korner in Baltimore and Missy Lanes in Durham, NC. He’s also playing with his band at the Liberty Harbor Festival in Jersey City. Foglia is a repeat scholarship winner. In 2023, he won the $500 award for Jazz Performance. Dr. Demsey said Foglia is, “an imaginative and very advanced composer/arranger for someone of his young age.”
Yi, who was originally attracted to jazz after hearing Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite”, is working on recreating the music of the 1995 Verve album, Charlie Parker with Strings. Rudresh Mahanthappa, Associate Director of Princeton’s Program in Musical Performance, said Yi is “one of the best student musicians I have encountered in my career as a jazz educator.”
Chalick is pursuing his Master’s Degree in Jazz Performance at Montclair State’s John J. Cali School of Music. He performed with the Montclair State University Jazz Ensemble at the recent Montclair Jazz Festival. According to Mahanthappa, Chalick is “an incredibly thoughtful and sensitive trumpet player and composer.”
Influenced by Pat Martino, with whom he studied, David O’Rourke has performed with such jazz legends as pianists Tommy Flanagan and Cedar Walton, alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, and trombonist Curtis Fuller. Mary Ann McSweeney has played with jazz luminaries such as Dizzy Gillespie and Bucky Pizzarelli and served for several years on the faculty of Lincoln Center’s Middle School Jazz Academy. Alvester Garnett, who recently performed at the Central Jersey Jazz Festival in Somerville, NJ, is an Adjunct Professor in the Jazz Studies program at Montclair State’s John J. Cali School of Music. Braden, an NJJS Advisor, has played with such jazz greats as Betty Carter, Freddie Hubbard, and Wynton Marsalis. He is also Director of the Litchfield Jazz Camp and spent 15 years as Director of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Jazz For Teens program. Prior to the concert, the music professionals will participate in a roundtable discussion with the scholarship leaders.
The NJJS Scholarship Compe¬tition was open to all New Jersey college students currently enrolled in an undergraduate music program, as well as to New Jersey residents currently enrolled in an out of state undergraduate program.
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts begin at 3 p.m. Admission will be $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student ad¬mission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase.
To order tickets in advance, log onto https://artsintrinsic.ticketleap.com/jersey-jazz-live-nov/ Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts. This program is also proudly supported by a grant from The Summit Foundation
