Litchfield Performing Arts, a not-for-profit organization, held its first Litchfield Jazz Camp Talent Search Competition in 28 years, on Saturday, March 2nd at the Litchfield Community Center. Twenty-one finalists ages 13 to 17 competed for Litchfield Jazz Camp scholarships. The first-place prize, a $2000 scholarship, went to violinist Conor McMillen, age 16, from New York City. Second place, a $1000 scholarship went to guitarist Josephine Roses, 13, also from New York. The third-place winner, pianist Isaiah Cross, 17, from New Haven CT, also received a $1000 scholarship. Two $250 Honorable Mention Awards went to drummer Benjamin Sirignano, 16, from Greenwich CT, and pianist Mihira Tangelloju, 13, who flew in for the event with her father, Sridhar, from Louisville KY.
An audience of 95 friends, family and community members enjoyed the music-making from 2 to 6 PM when, after a playoff round, the winners were announced. Attendees and contestants were treated to refreshments throughout while they enjoyed music made on usual and not-so-common instruments. Besides the violin popularized early on by European Gypsy Jazz bands and immortalized by the legendary Stephane Grappelli, we heard a baritone horn splendidly played by Xavier Smith, a 16-year-old from New Haven who also, but not on this occasion, plays the Euphonium.
Players were given a song list of a dozen jazz standards to choose from. And the winner was…..All the Things You Are, with Autumn Leaves a close second. If choices had been doubled, the judges agreed, the outcome would have been exactly the same. No one minded, as each young artist put a different spin on these jazz favorites.
The finalists, chosen on the basis of a short video clip, were treated to a world-class backup band that included award-winning pianist/composer Zaccai Curtis, bassist Conway Campbell, and drummer Ian Carroll, all members of the Litchfield Jazz Camp faculty. Fittingly, both Curtis, a first-call pro and a professor of music, and Campbell, a young and in-demand bass player, were Litchfield Jazz Campers in their formative years.
Judges for the event were Kris Allen, the Lyell B. Clay Artist-In-Residence in Jazz at Williams College and long-time faculty member at Litchfield Jazz Camp, Albert Rivera, Adjunct Professor, SUNY Purchase College and Operations Director of Litchfield Jazz Camp and Vita Muir, Executive/Artistic Director and Founder, LPA and Litchfield Jazz.
Supporters who helped make this premier event possible included Martin and Liz Brayboy, Ted Murphy/EJ Murphy Real Estate, Koen and Pat Loeven, Anthony Imbimbo and Kristen Adams, Mark and Elissa Shornick, Mary Pavone, Robert and Fadya Lurie, Eliot Wadsworth and Helen Shu, LaBonne’s Market and the Litchfield Community Center. Litchfield Jazz Camp, held on the campus of the Frederick Gunn School in Washington CT during July, is still accepting students for its four summer sessions. For information and registration visit www.litchfieldjazzcamp.org or call 860- 361- 6285. The camp accepts students ages 13 to adult at all levels of play with no pre-audition required. A placement audition on arrival assigns campers to skill-matched combos. Need-based financial support can be requested.