Jazz competitions at ravenscroft

After three years of Competitions at Ravenscroft, the team has decided to put competitive events on hiatus for the time being, while we identify ways to host future competitions that will better benefit young performing artists. This page serves to archive our previous activities with Competitions at Ravenscroft and to document the 15 different winners—all outstanding musicians—recognized in three years of events.

Bob Ravenscroft International Jazz Piano Competition

In 2022, the Bob Ravenscroft International Jazz Piano Competition set out to recognize and celebrate exceptional artistry in emerging professional jazz pianists ages 21 to 35.

Thank you to all of the entrants and to the six finalists who traveled to perform in the event finals: Nicki Adams, Antoine Bacherot, Antoine Bouchaud, Michael Clement, Horváth Balázs, and Jason Yeager.

Congratulations to the prizewinners!

  • 1st Place - Michael Clement (USA)
  • 2nd Place - Jason Yeager (USA)
  • 3rd Place - Antoine Bacherot (France)

Thank you to adjudicators Michael Kocour, Melanie Shore, and Sam Gingher, who served on the prescreening panel and special thanks to George W. Russell, Jr., Miki Yamanaka and Angelo Versace, who adjudicated the live event finals in October 2022. 

Ravenscroft Jazz Prize

The Ravenscroft Jazz Prize was created to celebrate American solo artists as they begin their journeys in improvised music. The competition featured two categories: one for Developing Musicians ages 17 to 19; the other, for Early Professional Artists ages 20 to 22.

Thank you to all the entrants of the 2023 and 2024 Ravenscroft Jazz Prize competition and congratulations to the prizewinners!

2024 Ravenscroft Jazz Prizewinners

Developing Musicians - Instrumentalists

  • 1st Place – Elena Weng (CA) 
  • 2nd Place – Nick Mikhail (NJ)
  • 3rd Place – Tanvi Kumar (CA)

Early Professional Artists - Vocalists

  • 1st Place –  Aviana Gedler (MA)
  • 2nd Place – Kate Kortum (NY)
  • 3rd Place – Faith Quashie (NY)

2023 Ravenscroft Jazz Prizewinners

Early Professional Artists - Instrumentalists

  • 1st Place – Cameron Campbell (NY)
  • 2nd Place – Arsen Nalbandian (AZ)
  • 3rd Place – Danny Morissett (AZ)

Developing Musicians - Vocalists

  • 1st Place – Dystince Robertson (WI)
  • 2nd Place – Damien Blair (WI)
  • 3rd Place – Natalia Scott (AZ)

Thank you to the panel of clinicians who adjudicated the instrumental submissions: Jason Palmer, Roxy Coss, and Corcoran Holt and to Sara Gazarek, Tommy Boynton, Lucy Yeghizaryan (2023), and Michael Mayo (2024) who reviewed the vocal submissions. 

 

Administrator of Competitions

Russell Schmidt is the Director of Education for MSW Ministries, and the Administrator for Competitions at Ravenscroft. He also leads MSW's Valley Jazz Cooperative program, a program he founded in 2016 to help Arizona music students explore their creativity. Previously, he served as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of Utah, and was on the jazz faculty of the Eastman School of Music, where he co-conducted the Eastman Studio Orchestra.

As a pianist, Russell has performed with such celebrated artists as Carl Allen, Eddie Daniels, John Hollenbeck, Joe Lovano, Gerry Mulligan, Arturo Sandoval, and Clark Terry. Among his recordings as a leader are Jazz Triptych, Volume I - The Sacred (2018), a collection of hymns and spirituals reimagined in the jazz language, and the follow-up companion album Jazz Triptych, Volume II - The Secular (2019). As a composer and arranger, Russell has written for artists as varied as saxophonists Bob Berg and Michael Brecker, the Ying String Quartet, and the chamber music group Rhythm & Brass. Additionally, his arrangements and compositions have been released by Advance Music, GIA Publications, the Penfield Commission Project, and VJC Publications. As an author, he contributed two units to the Oxford University Press publication Teaching School Jazz: Perspectives, Principles, and Strategies (2019), including a chapter on jazz piano instruction.

 

Ravenscroft is an outreach of MSW Ministries, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit private operating foundation, dedicated to presenting creativity that gives glory to God. To learn more about MSW outreach ministries and activities, many of which take place in Ravenscroft, please visit this page.