Bridget Kearney, '08, a jazz composer and double bassist who is enrolled in the New England Conservatory-Tufts University joint degree program, has won a Grand Prize in the 2005 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Her entry, an ironic exploration of ambivalent feelings about a potential lover, “Sometimes When I'm Drunk and You're Wearing My Favorite Shirt," won for the best jazz song. She is one of 12 winners in as many categories and, along with a $5000 advance from EMI Music Publishing, she will receive a 1000-copy CD recording of her music. In earlier rounds, she won project studio equipment worth $5000 and a $500 gift certificate. She will now compete against the other 12 prize winners for the Maxell Song of the Year Award and a $20,000 prize.
While judging for the final 12 winners was done by ordinary listeners who voted via the Internet, a jury of celebrity musicians will decide who wins the Maxell Song of the Year. The panel this year includes: John Legend, Elton John, Carlos Santana, Enrique Iglesias, Tim McGraw, Black Eyed Peas, Carol Bayer Sager, CeCe and BeBe Wynan, and Amy Grant. The John Lennon Songwriting Context, now in its ninth year, is dedicated to providing opportunities to both professional and amateur songwriters.
A native of Iowa City, IO, Kearney, 20, studies with Danilo Perez and Bob Moses. She is currently spending a semester abroad in Morocco. She performed her prize-winning song with her group, Lake Street Dive, described as “a free country band, four musicians, four songwriters, four broken hearts." The musicians, besides Kearney, are Mike Calabrese '07, drums; Rachael Price '07, vocals; and Mike Olson, trumpet/guitar.
Bridget's biography, excerpted from her website (www.BridgetKearney.com) follows:
“Bridget was born on June 10, 1985 to Joseph and Julie Kearney of Iowa City, IA, and spent the first 12 years of her life perfecting her cow tipping technique. Once that was accomplished, she moved on to the bass--getting her first big break with the Northwest Junior High School Orchestra in 1998. She went on to study classical bass with Diana Gannett and performed as principal bass for the Iowa All-State Orchestra for two years. She also performed with the National High School Honors Orchestra in 2003, but by this time, she had become deeply enamored with jazz music and was considering breaking up with classical. This breakup was facilitated and negotiated on both sides by her then-bass teacher, Mark Urness. While this battle continued to ensue, Bridget graduated from West High School, threw her bass, a bag of rice and a Red Sox t-shirt on her back and departed for Boston to pursue her future.
In Boston, she began school at New England Conservatory, where she studied with such jazz mo'fo's as Bob Moses, Danilo Perez, Cecil McBee, John Lockwood, Frank Carlberg, Michael Cain, John McNeil and Jamey Haddad. She also performed with Joe Lovano(!). (She simultaneously enrolled) at Tufts University, where she read lots of books and didn't do her math homework. Recently she has taken part in workshops with Steve Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Dave Holland and Django Bates. She did her first international performing at the Panama Jazz Festival in Panama City, Panama in January 2005. Later that year she spent six weeks in China playing with Jeremy Udden and a delightful array of local musicians! Her triumphant return to the states included gigs in California, New York, Boston and Iowa... Plans for the first Lake Street Dive tour are in the works for summer 2006."
For more information, call the NEC Concert Line at 617-585-1122 or visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.
The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes--thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.
NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC's opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.
NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top," a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
