Fifth Edition Of The 'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' To Launch August 1, 2021

LOS ANGELES, July 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- While the live music industry is slowly recovering from the global pandemic, the 'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' offers a glimpse of hope to aspiring musicians who recently saw most of their concerts and tours vanish into thin air. The prestigious award presents an opportunity to win two readymade tours: 7 shows at major jazz festivals in Europe for the European winner and 10 shows at major jazz festivals in the USA and Canada for the winner of the North American edition. Both tours will take place in summer 2022 and are accompanied by a full year of PR and marketing support courtesy of the Air Artist Agency. 

All jazz musicians can submit their material (3 sound samples & 1 video link) via the dedicated website www.l1risingstarsjazzaward.com and a jury will then select the next RISING STAR/s. The submission period begins on August 1, 2021 and ends midnight on October 30, 2021, with winners announced in mid-January 2022. Musicians based in Europe must apply for the European edition, while musicians based in the USA and Canada must apply for the North American edition. There are no age restrictions.

The 'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' started out in Europe in 2017 and has - thanks to overwhelming positive response - since expanded into North America. Winners perform at European festivals including the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, Nice Jazzfestival in France, the Jazzopen in Stuttgart, Germany, the Leopolis Jazzfestival in the Ukraine, the Kongsberg Jazzfestival in Norway, and Love Supreme in the United Kingdom. North American festivals include the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York, DC Jazz Festival in Washington, San Francisco Jazz Festival, CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Iowa City - Summer Of The Arts, Monterey Jazz Festival and the Earshot Festival in Seattle.

Last year's winners Itamar Borochov (Europe) and Immanuel Wilkins (North America) were announced during an online award ceremony broadcast by leading broadcasters WBGO in the USA and Jazz FM in the UK. The broadcast featured performances by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Christian McBride and Terri Lyne Carrington, and was hosted by Jamie Cullum.

The jury of the LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award consists of jazz business specialists, journalists, producers, promoters and is chaired every year by a well known artist - starting with Jazz superstar Jamie Cullum in 2017, Dee Dee Bridgewater in 2018, George Benson in 2019 and Terri Lyne Carrington in 2020.

'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' has received global recognition and support from many Jazz heavyweights including Quincy Jones, Wayne Shorter, Gregory Porter, and organizations such as Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York and  Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The 'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' is an investment in the brightest jazz talents in Europe and North America and it hugely benefits from the sponsorship and dedicated backing of Mikhail Fridman, a philanthropist and the founder of the LetterOne Group. Most importantly in this case, Mikhail Fridman is a huge Jazz fan. He is a frequent visitor of Jazz festivals across the world and has personally founded the renowned Leopolis Jazz Fest in Lviv.

Producing the 'LetterOne RISING STARS Jazz Award' is the award-winning AIR ARTIST AGENCY, whose director Burkhard Hopper has a long-standing experience in introducing new artists. For 9 years he was running the Rising Stars concert series which – among others – introduced artists such as Diana Krall, Brad Mehldau, Nicholas Payton, Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit and Esbjörn Svensson to audiences in Europe.

SOURCE LetterOne 'RISING STARS' Jazz Award