NJJS Adds Jazz Vocal Scholarships

January 28, 2025

The New Jersey Jazz Society is adding a Vocal Performance category to its 2025 Juried Scholarship Competition.

The deadline for this year’s applications is no later than March 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET. There are now six awards:

  • $1,000 for Jazz Performance
  • $1,000 for Original Composition
  • $1.000 for Vocal Performance
  • $500 for Jazz Performance
  • $500 for Original Composition
  • $500 for Vocal Performance

The competition is open to all New Jersey college students currently enrolled in a college undergraduate music program and to New Jersey residents currently enrolled in an out-of-state college undergraduate program. For the latter, proof of residency is required.

Along with the cash award, winners will receive guidance, mentorship, the opportunity to perform with an industry professional, and coverage in Jersey Jazz Magazine. For more details, applicants can visit njjs.org/competition for details.

Judges will again be: Don Braden, tenor saxophonist/flutist, composer and educator; Ted Chubb, trumpeter and educator; Jason Olaine, Vice President of Programming at Jazz at Lincoln Center; and Mariel Bildsten, trombonist/bandleader and educator. Winners will be announced in early May and will be profiled in the June issue of Jersey Jazz. Last year’s winners were:

  • $1,000 prize for Performance: Pianist Lasse Corson, Minneapolis, William Paterson University
  • $1,000 prize for Composition: Saxophonist Joseph Foglia, Raleigh, NC, William Paterson University
  • $500 prize for Performance: Saxophonist Isaac Yi, Leonia, NJ, Princeton University
  • $500 prize for Composition: Trumpeter Gabriel Chalick, Naples, FL, Princeton University

The New Jersey Jazz Society (NJJS) is a non-profit organization of business and professional people, musicians, teachers, students and listeners working together for the purpose of advancing jazz music. The competition is generously supported by Nan Hughes Poole, Cynthia Feketie, Mike Katz, and Jackie Wetcher.

(Photo above: Pianist Lasse Corson; photo below, from left, saxophonist Isaac Yi, trumpeter Gabriel Chalick, and saxophonist Joseph Foglia).

PHOTOS BY SANFORD JOSEPHSON

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