I am thrilled to announce that I will have the opportunity to share my music with the Seattle Jazz Women’s Orchestra November 3rd and 4th, featuring Grace Kelly on alto saxophone! My composition Noir was selected as the 2014 winner of the annual SWOJO Composition Contest. The honorable mention went to Jihye Lee for her composition “Deep Blue Sea.” http://swojo.org/contest_results.html
The judges were SWOJO’s guest artist, Grace Kelly http://www.gracekellymusic.com, Juno award winning jazz composer Christine Jensen http://www.christinejensenmusic.com/, and our music director, Daniel Barry: http://swojo.org/players.html.
Here is some feedback from the judges on “Noir”:
– “Strongest compositionally. This piece reminds me of Ornette’s collaboration with Howard Shore for the film Naked Lunch.”
– “Really beautiful and haunting. Reminded me of some Maria Schneider pieces and Billy Childs arrangements I’ve heard.”
– “Strongest compositionally with a contemporary big band approach to it.”
Here is a link to the recording “Noir” that I submitted for this contest. “Noir” was premiered by the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble.
The Seattle Women’s Jazz Orchestra will perform it as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival. The concert is on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 at the Triple Door in Seattle, WA.