NEC Prep Jazz Ensemble Wins Chamber Music Competition

Young Jazz Masters Triumph at Winners Concert in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, May 30

The Midday Quartet, a jazz ensemble from New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, was named co-winner of the Grand Prize in the First International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, May 30 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. The teenage jazz masters are coached by NEC bassist Rick McLaughlin ‘99, ’05 M.M. They tied with a piano trio from New York to triumph over nine other ensembles (including four from NEC) that had won first prizes in earlier rounds of the competition.

The players include Jake Miller, drums, from Somerset; Andrew Silverio, tenor sax, from Boxborough; Malcolm Campbell, piano, from Lexington; and Nicholas Schwartz, bass, from Brookline.

A project of the Chamber Music Foundation of New England (CMFoNE), the ambitious annual competition is intended to promote chamber music by providing opportunities to play in the best music halls in New England and New York. It is open to student and amateur groups of all ages and nationalities. Groups may compete in five age groups and six ensemble types—including piano and sonata duos, jazz ensembles, vocal chamber groups, Baroque ensembles and any other instrumental combination. Preliminary rounds took place over four weekends in April at New England Conservatory and St. Mark’s School in Southborough. All of the first prize winners performed in the Carnegie concert with the winners announced at its conclusion.

The Midday Quartet won $500 and will perform November 6 in St. Paul Church, Brookline as part of CMFoNE’s 2005-06 chamber music concert series.

The foundation will also present the second and third prize winners from the preliminary rounds in concerts June 12 at the Longy School in Cambridge and June 5 at St. Marks School.

Besides the competition, CMFoNE sponsors masterclasses and a festival of five concerts with performers chosen by audition. Ellina Blinder is Artistic Director of the festival; Tatyana Dudochkin is Artistic Director of the competition. Lilia Muchnik and Tanya Kodinsky serve as music directors of the string and piano chamber music ensembles.

For more information, visit NEC on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu/prep

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 more than two hundred stations throughout the United States.