Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 02/12/2025
From left, 2024 Scholarship Winners Isaac Yi, Gabriel Chalick, and Joseph Foglia, photo by Sanford Josephson
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 11:59pm 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; and $500 for Vocal Performance.
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.
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.
Judges will again be: Don Braden, tenor saxophonist/flutist, composer and educator; Ted Chubb, lecturer of music; 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.
Lasse Corson, 2024 Jazz Performance Scholarship Winner, photo by Sanford Josephson
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.
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