BerkleeJazz.org is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest, sponsored by Berklee College of Music’s Jazz Composition Department and Professional Writing Division. The winning piece will be performed by the Berklee Rainbow Band at the 2014 High School Jazz Festival, happening this year on February 8th, 2014 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. In addition, the winner will receive a full scholarship to the Berklee 5-week Summer Performance Program. Download application
2013 Winner
The March 2, 2013 winner of the Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition / Arranging Contest is Aditya Raguram, from Princeton, New Jersey!
Aditya Raguram is a junior at Princeton High School in Princeton, NJ. He studies jazz piano with Ted Rosenthal (Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School) and classical piano with Galina Prilutskaya (Westminster Conservatory). His winning composition is entitled “Remember,” a piece featuring trumpet and saxophone section. Other awards that he has won include the Westminster Conservatory’s piano concerto competition, the UK’s Royal School of Music Hedy King Robinson prize for music theory, and Berklee Jazz Festival’s superior musicianship award. Aditya is the pianist for the NJ All-State Jazz Ensemble, Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra, Princeton Studio Band, and other jazz ensembles. He has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and other locations in US, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy. Aditya plans to pursue both applied physics and music in college.
2012 Winner
This year’s winner of Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest is Frank Rein, from Princeton, New Jersey.
Frank is a senior at Princeton High School. His winning piece is entitled “I Think I’ll Miss You Most Of All” will be performed by the Berklee Rainbow Band (under the direction of Phil Wilson) today at 6:00 p.m. in the Veterans
Memorial Auditorium, Second Level. In addition, Rein will receive a full scholarship to the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program. Rein is a bass trombonist and has studied with Scott Grimaldi for two years
2011 Winner
John Sturm from Princeton, NJ was the 2011 winner. His winning piece was a ballad entitled Autumn Lament and featured the lead trombone. Read more about John…
About Herb Pomeroy
Herb Pomeroy was a Berklee Faculty legend and jazz great. A graduate of the class of ’52, his work as a mentor and musician helped make Berklee into the world’s leading institute of contemporary music.
Jazz great and Berklee Faculty legend, Herb Pomeroy leading one of his many classes
He joined the Berklee faculty as a full-time teacher in 1955 and developed several courses that eventually cemented his reputation as one of jazz’s greatest teachers. Pomeroy’s appreciation for and endless study of Duke Ellington’s music informed much of his classroom work and helped spawn scores of talented musicians, including producer Arif Mardin, The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, composer-arrangers Alan Broadbent and Rob Mounsey, vibraphonist Gary Burton, keyboardist Joe Zawinul, bassist Abe Laboriel Sr., film composers Mike Gibbs and Alan Silvestri, and many others.
Herb released many CDs as a leader and co-leader and appeared on dozens of recordings as a sideman, including sessions with Charlie Parker and Charlie Mariano. He began playing professionally in high school and went on the road in the early 1950s with bands led by Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, and Serge Chaloff.
