The ASCAP Foundation, under the leadership of President Paul Williams and Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton, continues its partnership in support of emerging jazz artists for a second year with the DC Jazz Festival, headed by President & CEO Sunny Sumter.
Celebrating 20 years, the 2024 DC JazzFest takes place August 28-September 1. The festival opens its stage to dozens of exceptional jazz artists and will feature a performance by Joe Block’s Open Heart Trio on August 31 at 2:30 PM on its Transit Stage at The Wharf, 1001 7th Street SW in Washington DC. Block is among the recipients of the 2024 ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards.
"Jazz is a vital force in American music and one of our most treasured art forms," said ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams. "We congratulate DC Jazz Festival on their 20th anniversary and are excited to partner with them for a second year."
“The DC JazzFest is an incredible showcase for jazz, and we love working with them to provide this opportunity for one of our Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients,” said ASCAP Foundation Executive Director Nicole George-Middleton.
Joe Block
Joe Block is a pianist, composer, arranger, and educator hailing from Philadelphia, PA. As a child prodigy who began his piano career at age 2, Block soon turned his interest towards jazz. He has since found success in New York City following his dual degree from Columbia-Juilliard where he studied among the likes of Geoffrey Keezer, Marc Cary, Ted Rosenthal, and Frank Kimbrough. Regarded as one of "jazz's most promising young composers" by Jazz at Lincoln Center, Block is in high demand as a regular arranger for the Lincoln Center Orchestra and serves as the musical director for the Future of Jazz Orchestra, while finding time to play with musicians across generations including Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Leslie Odom Jr.
Block leads his own trio, quintet, and large ensembles. He has been recognized as a YoungArts Foundation Finalist, a Jazz at Lincoln Center J. Douglas White Award winner, and most recently, as a finalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition.
All About Jazz, the longest-running platform covering jazz music commented “Block generates excitement that emanates from something hidden within him that is ready to come into being. He could be compared with the young Herbie Hancock whose early risk taking and imagination would keep expanding throughout his legendary career.”
The Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards were established by The ASCAP Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30. The program carries the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation's multi-year financial commitment to support this unique program. The recipients, who receive cash awards, are selected through a juried national competition.
More information on this year’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards recipients can be found at https://www.ascap.com/press/2024/03/03-11-herb-alpert-recipients.
