The six New Jersey Jazz Society 2026 Scholarship Winners will be honored at the October 4th Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison Community Arts Center. They will be joined by five veteran jazz professionals: tenor saxophonist/flutist Don Braden, trumpeter Ted Chubb, pianist Caili O’Doherty, bassist Mary Anne McSweeney, and drummer Karl Latham. Braden and Chubb are NJJS Advisors and were judges in the scholarship competition.
The scholarship recipients are: pianist Jasper Zimmerman (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY/Princeton University) $1,000 winner for Instrumental Performance; vocalist Allison Jiang (Shanghai, China/Princeton University), $1,000 winner for Vocal Performance; pianist Nicholas Thorpe (West Orange, NJ/Rutgers University), $1,000 winner for Composition; guitarist Sally Shupe (Maplewood, NJ/William Paterson University), $500 winner for Instrumental Performance; vocalist Kyra Cioffi, (Rutherford, NJ/William Paterson University) $500 winner for Vocal Performance; and pianist Simon Bahadoran (Nice, France/William Paterson University) $500 winner for Composition. (Photo above, from left, Jasper Zimmerman, Allison Jiang, and Nicolas Thorpe; photo below, from left, Sally Shupe, Kyra Cioffi, and Simon Bahadoran).
Although Zimmerman is just beginning his sophomore year at Princeton, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Anthony H.P. Director of Jazz, considers him to possibly be “the best student I have ever had in my 10 years at Princeton. He’s a great improviser, composer, arranger, and conceptualist. I don’t think there are any limits to his potential, as he is fiercely curious and ever-thirsty for knowledge.”
Jiang came to Princeton to study sociology and classical violin. “If you asked me to define what a ‘rhythm section’ was as a college freshman,” she said, “I would have replied with a blank stare.” But, as a junior, she auditioned for the jazz ensembles “so I could engage in a type of musicmaking that would push my musical skillset.”
Thorpe grew up studying classical piano. When he became a student at Livingston, NJ’s Newark Academy, he joined the jazz band “out of curiosity” and “managed to immerse myself with my school’s jazz culture.” As a freshman last year at Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, he studied with Dr. Robert Livingston Aldridge, Professor of Composition; composer Jack Frerer; and tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton.
As a teenager, Sally Shupe discovered a 1963 YouTube video of guitarist Wes Montgomery playing Henry Mancini’s “Days of Wine and Roses.” After hearing that, Shupe said, “My fate was sealed. I knew then that I would never stop striving to be the best guitarist possible.” Now a junior at William Paterson, Shupe studies with guitarist Dave Stryker, who once invited her to sit in with him and fellow guitarist Frank Vignola at Birdland.
This is the second year Cioffi has been awarded an NJJS Scholarship for Vocal Performance. Earlier this year, she finished second in the Blues Alley Ella Fitzgerald Vocal Competition and will perform at the Washington DC jazz club in March 2027. She received her WPU Jazz Studies Bachelors Degree this past spring and is “especially grateful for the support of my vocal teacher, Carolyn Leonhart. Her commitment to lyrically driven storytelling and horizontal improvisation really stuck with me.”
Simon Bahadoran played and listened to classical music before getting into jazz around age 15. “The first jazz album that made a deep impression on me,” he recalled, “was Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio album, Tokyo ’96 (ECM: 1998). I still vividly remember Keith’s lush, magical chords that open the tune — how they hit me at the core, like fresh water. It was a combination of Bach’s counterpoint, Ravel’s harmonic language, and something else.”
The NJJS Scholarship Competition was open to all students currently enrolled in a New Jersey college undergraduate program, as well as to New Jersey residents currently enrolled in an out-of-state college undergraduate program. Proof of residence was required for New Jersey applicants in out-of-state schools.
Along with the cash awards, the winners will receive guidance, mentorship, and the opportunity (on October 4) to perform with industry professionals. They were also featured in the June 2026 Jersey Jazz Magazine cover story.
The competition was judged by a panel of professional musicians. The two judges, In addition to Braden and Chubb, were vocalist/pianist Champian Fulton and Jason Olaine, Vice President of Programming, Jazz at Lincoln Center. NJJS would like to thank Nan Hughes Poole and NJJS Board members, Cynthia Feketie, Mike Katz, and Jackie Wetcher for their generous support of this initiative.
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 is $15 for NJJS members and $20 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets here in advance
Funding for JJL! has been made 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 and from the Summit Foundation.
PHOTOS OF SALLY SHUPE AND KYRA CIOFFI BY MARGUERITE LAFOUNTAINE; PHOTO OF SIMON BAHADORAN BY CLAIRE JOHNSON.
