92 DOWNBEAT JUNE 2018 The Best Student Musicians of 2018 JUNE 2018 DOWNBEAT 93 Zack Shubert of Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, is the recipient of two Student Music Award honors. See page 100. (Photo: Jeff Bartee) 41 Student Music Awards Pacific Standard Time from California State University, Long Beach THE DOWNBEAT STUDENT MUSIC AWARDS Achievement award. honor the achievements of today’s top student Christine Helferich Guter, director of the musicians and their teachers. The results of vocal jazz program at the Bob Cole 100 | this year’s 41st edition, presented in the fol- Conservatory of Music at California State JAZZ INSTRUMENTAL SOLOIST lowing pages, show jazz education to be in a University, Long Beach since 2002, instills a 104 | SMALL JAZZ COMBO vibrant state at every stage from junior high sense of artistic honesty in her students. Her to grad school. program has been honored with close to 30 108 | LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE Motivated students are digesting more Student Music Awards since 2006. information and playing at higher levels than Cuauhtémoc “Moc” Escobedo has direct- 112 | LARGE VOCAL JAZZ ENSEMBLE ever before, thanks in large part to the dedicat- ed jazz and concert bands at Seattle’s Eckstein ed educators who set them up for success and Middle School since 1994. He takes an all-in- 116 | BLUES/POP/ROCK SOLOIST the schools that provide them with a proper clusive approach to leading student jazz learning environment. And, as previous edi- ensembles, one that has garnered 15 Student 128 | DOWNBEAT JAZZ EDUCATION tions of the Student Music Awards have prov- Music Award honors over the years. HALL OF FAME: en time and again, these students are going on The highest teaching honor this year goes to DAVEY S. YARBOROUGH to do great things. Indeed, the future of jazz Davey S. Yarborough, whom we welcome into finds itself in good hands as this next genera- the DownBeat Jazz Education Hall of Fame. We 130 | DOWNBEAT JAZZ EDUCATION tion makes its way through the halls of aca- celebrate his 32-year tenure as jazz studies direc- ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: demia and begins to emerge on the scene. tor and saxophone instructor at Washington CHRISTINE HELFERICH GUTER As we bestow honors upon our most D.C.’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, where promising students, it’s important to acknowl- he has become a role model of consistency and 132 | DOWNBEAT JAZZ EDUCATION edge the contributions of exemplary educa- quality to students who have traveled to per- ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: tors who have devoted their lives to preparing form at prestigious jazz festivals. CUAUHTÉMOC “MOC” ESCOBEDO students for real-world work as musicians and Congratulations to all of this year’s Student music business professionals. This year, we Music Award honorees. We hope you find 96 | DOWNBEAT STUDENT MUSIC are proud to honor two distinguished music their stories inspiring, and we bet you’ll be AWARDS–COMPLETE RESULTS teachers with DownBeat’s Jazz Education hearing a lot more from them in the future. DB 94 DOWNBEAT JUNE 2018 JUNE 2018 DOWNBEAT 95 41 Student Music Awards BYU Synthesis Big Band from Brigham Young University, Orem, UT JAZZ SOLOIST Zane Smith Pat Donaher Undergraduate Piano Lexington, MA College Winners Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse Junior High School Winners Caleb Chapman Performing Arts Luca Mendoza Salt Lake City, UT High School Winner Henry Acker Piano Guitar High School Winner Gabe Rupe University of Southern California Duxbury Middle School Bass Thornton School of Music Jill Norenberg Zack Shubert Alan Pasqua Colorado Conservatory Los Angeles, CA Duxbury, MA Piano of the Arts Brandon Goldberg Carlmont High School Eric Gunnison Caleb Smith Piano Peter Horvath Denver, CO Trombone Belmont, CA Miami Arts Charter School Performing Arts Oberlin Conservatory Paul Posnak High School Outstanding Robin Eubanks High School Outstanding Oberlin, OH Miami, FL Performances Performance Junior High School Undergraduate College Esteban Castro Summer Camargo Outstanding Performances Piano Trumpet Outstanding Performances Bergen County Academies Dillard Center for the Arts Dylan Buckser-Schulz Phillip Kawin Jamael Dean Drums Christopher Dorsey Piano Hackensack, NJ Ft. Lauderdale, FL Lagond Music School University of the Pacific, Jerad Lippi Zaq Davis Brubeck Institute Elmsford, NY Trumpet Community College Patrick Langham Saint Ann’s School Outstanding Performance Stockton, CA Gabriel Severn Jon Heim Bass Brooklyn, NY Jacob Abinante Anthony Ferrara Loyalsock Township Piano Tenor Saxophone Middle School Eugene Kim El Camino College NYU Steinhardt Eddie Severn Piano Amy Bormet David Pietro Williamsport, PA Lexington High School Torrance, CA New York, NY 96 DOWNBEAT JUNE 2018 Sean Mason Piano University of North Carolina at Greensboro Ariel Pocock Greensboro, NC Eric Nakanishi Alto Saxophone Berklee College of Music Ralph Peterson Boston, MA Graduate College Winners Patrick Hogan Piano University of Nevada, Las Vegas David Loeb Las Vegas, NV Nathan Reising Alto Saxophone New England Conservatory Jazz Ensemble I from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Jacksonville, FL Frank Carlberg Boston, MA High School Winners Josh Murray SMALL JAZZ COMBO Sacramento, CA Graduate College So Fly Zone Outstanding Performance Junior High School Ann Arbor Community High School Outstanding Performance High School Outstanding Performance Brandon Moore Jack Wagner Tenor Saxophone Jazz Combo Ann Arbor, MI The Frontiers Jazz Quartet University of North Texas Edna Brewer Middle School Montclair High School Richard DeRosa Zack Pitt-Smith The Mingus Trio James Wasko Denton, TX Oakland, CA Rio Americano High School Montclair, NJ JUNE 2018 DOWNBEAT 97 Performing Arts Honors Ensemble Winner High School Winners Advanced High School Colburn Jazz Jazz Workshop I Workshop Thursday The Jazzschool at California Night Band Jazz Conservatory Colburn Community School of Michael Zilber Performing Arts Berkeley, CA Lee Secard Los Angeles, CA Honors Ensemble Colburn Jazz Outstanding Performance Workshop Monday SFJAZZ All-Stars Night Band Combo Colburn Community SFJAZZ School of Performing Arts Dann Zinn Lee Secard San Francisco, CA Frontiers Jazz Quartet from Montclair High School, Montclair, NJ Los Angeles, CA Community College Winner Performing Arts High School Outstanding IATA Jazz Quartet Performances Cuesta College Ron McCarley Hamilton ‘A’ Combo San Luis Obispo, CA Hamilton High School Academy of Music and Undergraduate College Winners Performing Arts Jim Foschia Kei Matsumaru Trio Los Angeles, CA Berklee College of Music Tiger Okoshi Impulse Boston, MA Denver School of the Arts Dave Hammond Jake Victor 5tet VCS Radio Jazz Ensemble from Vacaville Christian School, Vacaville, CA Denver, CO Conservatorium van Amsterdam 98 DOWNBEAT JUNE 2018 Student-led ensemble Amsterdam, Netherlands Undergraduate College Outstanding Performances Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet 2016–2017 University of the Pacific, Brubeck Institute Patrick Langham Stockton, CA José Valentino & Shawn Perkinson’s Jazz Artist Ensemble Lee University Dr. José Valentino Ruiz-Resto Cleveland, TN Graduate College Winner UNLV Honors Quartet University of Nevada, Las Vegas David Loeb Las Vegas, NV LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE Junior High School Winners Little Big Band Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse Leyden High Schools Vocal Jazz Ensemble from Franklin Park, IL JUNE 2018 DOWNBEAT 99 41 Student Music Awards Zack Shubert Caleb Smith Summer Camargo The earliest and often most important swing music were the soundtrack. That plant- influence on young artists is their parents. ed the seed for her love of jazz, but she also Whether simply through support and encour- might have inherited some of her talent from agement or through hours of hands-on assis- her grandfather, an evangelist who accom- tance in the honing of playing techniques, a panied his preaching on guitar. His passing burgeoning musician is shaped first by their shortly before the competition deadline influ- family life. enced Camargo’s choice of material. For Zack Shubert, this year’s Jazz Instru- “I played [Benny Golson’s] ‘I Remember mental Soloist winner at the high school level, Clifford’ in memory of my grandpa,” she said. that meant having parents who recognized “I was thinking of him when I played and tried his natural inclinations and helped build upon to put as much emotion as I could into it.” them. Growing up in the Bay Area, Shubert A junior at the Dillard Center for the Arts was drawn to the piano, and he demonstrated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Camargo intends Nathan Reising an innate ear for melody. to continue her studies at a music conserva- “I’ve always tinkered around on any piano I tory. Christopher Dorsey, Dillard’s director uate school. “I see myself playing my music,” could find,” Shubert said. “My parents realized of jazz studies and instrumental music, said, he said. “I’ve been getting into Indian classical that I kept picking little things up from what I “Summer will be a force in the future of jazz, music a lot recently, so maybe down the road I was listening to, and I started taking lessons at as well as in any style of music she decides to could try to insert the trombone voice into that 5 years old.” perform.” scene. I want to be able to expand upon any- Now a junior at Carlmont High School in Trombonist Caleb Smith, who studies with thing and everything.” Belmont, California, Shubert maintains an ac- Robin Eubanks at Oberlin Conservatory in Now in his final months in the master’s tive performance schedule while taking cours- Ohio, is a winner in the Undergraduate Col- program at New England Conservatory in es in a program called Middle College, through lege division of the Jazz Instrumental Soloist Boston, alto saxophonist Nathan Reising is a which he earns credit toward his high school category (along with Luca Mendoza, a pia- winner in the Graduate College division (along graduation, as well as college. While those ex- nist at the University of Southern California’s with pianist Patrick Hogan, of the University of periences undoubtedly would give him a leg Thornton School of Music).