2024 SISTERS IN JAZZ
COLLEGIATE COMBO COMPETITION
In an effort to support JEN’s overall commitment to represent and cultivate diversity and inclusion in jazz,
the Jazz Education Network (JEN) Women in Jazz Committee has re-established the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition.
Through this exemplary program, full-time university students identifying as young women or non-binary jazz artists ages 18-29 will audition
and be selected to perform in the Sisters in Jazz quintet.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
DEADLINE: OCTOBER 15, 11:59PM EST
Sisters in Jazz alumnae include such renowned artists as
Sara Caswell • Dawn Clement • Anat Cohen • Anne Drummond, • Rosana Eckert • Tia Fuller •
Linda May Han Oh • Tina Raymond • Chihiro Yamanaka …and many more!
AND NOW, YOUR NAME CAN BE ADDED TO THE LIST.
All SIJ applicants must be:
- A JEN Individual or eJEN Member
- A full-time college student, concurrently taking a minimum of 12 undergraduate hours or six graduate hours.
All applicants must submit the following by October 15th through the GetAcceptd.com platform:
1. Recording Submission: Preferred format mp3 (M4A or wav files also accepted)
- Four individual audio recording files of your best playing, total recording time not to exceed 25 minutes. (Video recordings not accepted.):
- a ballad
- a medium-tempo blues (swing)
- an up-tempo rhythm changes tune (swing)
- a straight eighth tune (Latin, rock, funk, or original composition)
- VOCALISTS & HORN PLAYERS: play the head, take several choruses of solo and take the head out.
- PIANISTS, BASSISTS, & GUITARISTS: comp the changes or walk a chorus before soloing if not also accompanying a horn or vocal soloist and demonstrating those abilities. Using an existing recording that is not specifically in this format will be also be accepted, however.
- DRUMMERS: Everyone should play “Now’s the Time” as the blues selection and play the melody orchestrated around the set on the head in and out. Blues and rhythm changes should include trading 4s or full chorus solos. One tune, either blues or rhythm changes should include time playing with brushes as well as sticks. If some individual tracks are longer and include several soloists, indicate on the application at what time trading or solo choruses begin on those tracks.
2. One letter of recommendation
- You will submit the email address of one recommender in your application.
- Upon submission of the application, they will receive an email with a link to upload the letter on your behalf to Acceptd.
3. A bio, resume, or CV listing pertinent musical experiences.
4. A headshot or photo
- File should be print quality (high).
- File types accepted include: jpg, gif, and png.
- Label your photo file as follows: LastNameFirstNameJENSIJPhoto
5. An official copy of college transcript or other proof of concurrent full-time enrollment in an accredited college, university, or conservatory (a minimum of 12 undergraduate or six graduate hours)
6. $25 Application Fee paid through GetAcceptd.com.
2024 Sisters in Jazz Director:
BRIA SKONBERG
photos by Dario Acosta, Krista Stucchio
Born in British Columbia, Canada and now residing in New York City, Bria has been a featured artist at hundreds of festivals and stages the world over, including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, Kobe, Monterey, Breda, Newport and Montreal Jazz Festivals. Described as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” (Wall Street Journal), she has performed with Jon Batiste, Wycliffe Gordon, Stephane Wrembel, Steven Bernstein, U2 & Sun Ra Arkestra, The American Pops and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, The Blacksmiths “We Insist” Band, and once sang the “Star Spangled Banner” at Madison Square Garden for a NY Rangers game. The “shining hope of hot jazz” (NY Times) has been at the forefront of a revival of classic American music as both a performer and educator, programming concerts and workshops for students of all ages.
A 3x Juno Award Nominee, Bria’s debut LP on Sony Masterworks won for Best Jazz Vocal Album and made the Top 5 on Billboard jazz charts. Bria has recorded on over 25 albums and recently released her sixth studio solo album “Nothing Never Happens” consisting of mostly original compositions; Her music has garnered over 13 million streams online and over 85000 social media followers. A 6x Downbeat Rising Star, further accolades include the Jazz at Lincoln Center Swing Award, Best Vocal and Best Trumpet from Hot House Jazz Magazine and Outstanding Jazz Artist at the Bistro Awards. She tours constantly bringing her own signature sounds of fiery trumpet playing, smoky vocals and story-telling together with adventurous concoctions of classic and new.
The daughter of teachers, Bria is passionate about education and the learning experience. She was introduced to jazz by a spirited public school band program and local festival in her hometown of Chilliwack. She earned her degree in Jazz Trumpet Performance from Capilano University in Vancouver where she studied with Kevin Elaschuk, Alan Matheson, and independently with Australian cornetist Simon Stribling, all while balancing a full road schedule and managing two bands.
Following graduation she performed for four years with Canada’s King of Swing Dal Richards, and was taken under the wing of music producer Paul Airey who cultivated her love of song writing. She traveled extensively, performing in China, Japan and throughout Europe as a featured artist in traditional jazz circles.
Seeking new challenges, Bria moved to New York in 2010 and studied privately with renowned trumpeter Warren Vache for two years. She now appears often as a guest faculty member and clinician, giving masterclasses and private instruction as well as directing and performing with student ensembles at all levels. Bria is a Co-Founder/Director of the NY Hot Jazz Camp and has served as faculty at the Teagarden Jazz Camp (Sacramento Jazz Education Foundation), Centrum Jazz Camp, Geri Allen Jazz Camp and Junior Jazz Academy (JALC). She has performed hundreds of educational concerts and workshops for students of all ages, has led an ensemble for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People”outreach program and is an Educational Advisor to the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. She has been an Artist in Residence collaborating with Syracuse University, Ball State University, UNC Greensborough, Jazz Arts Group in Columbus, Cape May Regional Schools, and more.
In 2018 Lincoln Center sought out her leadership for a tribute to the first integrated all female big band, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which launched her acclaimed group Sisterhood of Swing. In 2019 she was a featured member of Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour for 26 dates alongside Cecile McLorin Salvant, Christian Sands, Melissa Aldana and Jamison Ross.
She is an active member of the Women in Jazz Organization, Jazz Education Network, a Bach Conn-Selmer artist, a board member of the International Trumpet Guild, and a new mother.
Past SIJ Directors
2023 – Marion Hayden
2022 – Allison Miller
2021 – Ingrid Jensen
2020 – Tia Fuller
2019 – Claire Daly
2023 SISTERS IN JAZZ SELECTEES
Throughout her musical career, Holly Channell has had many opportunities to teach and perform throughout the United States, and internationally. She is currently a graduate student at Arizona State University for Jazz Performance where she is also a Graduate Teaching Assistant, and is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, a wife and a mother.
Holly has been teaching private and group music instruction since 2010. Along with her current private music students she is also working as a mentor for the non-profit Phoenix Jazz Girls Rising, an organization devoted to teaching and supporting girls of all ages jazz, and giving them performance opportunities throughout the greater Phoenix area.
Holly also a member of the Women’s Jazz Collective, a jazz music ensemble that travels throughout Arizona performing works from all contemporary female jazz composers. She has studied with some of the best musicians including Lewis Nash, Mike Kocour, Roxy Coss, and Jason Palmer. Holly has also written original and arranged multiple jazz works for small group jazz combo.
Holly’s biggest passion besides being a mother to her two year-old daughter is jazz. It is a spiritual music that, when understood, consumes your whole soul. She has a passion for playing and studying jazz, but also teaching and mentoring the younger generation so they can have a chance to understand and have jazz music in their lives.
Lana Drincic is a 19-year-old pianist, composer, and bandleader. She was born in San Diego, California, and raised in Kingsburg, a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley. She started playing classical piano at age five and in high school began studying jazz piano with Craig VonBerg and playing professionally in Fresno, California.
Lana is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at California State University, Northridge, where she studies with Gary Fukushima and plays in the CSUN Jazz “A” Band, led by Tina Raymond. In the summer of 2022, she was a semifinalist in the jazz division of the Rubato International Solo Piano Competition in Oxford, Alabama. Recently she was selected to perform her original music in the LA Jazz Society Young Musicians Showcase. She leads a quintet, Lana Drincic + Friends, and performs her original compositions and arrangements with them around Los Angeles.
Destiny Diggs (Lé Queen) is a bassist, composer and bandleader born in Newark, NJ. She participated in the Jazz House Kids jazz training program under the direction of Christian McBride and Melissa Walker for 5 years.
In 2019, Destiny was announced as one of the Young Arts Double Bass Jazz winners. She is attending the Manhattan School of Music on a full tuition scholarship under the tutelage of jazz great, Maestro Ron Carter. Destiny also studies privately with Marc Cary and Buster Williams.
Aside from her studies at school, Destiny will perform on the Blue Note Jazz Cruise in 2023. She has performed at Dizzys Club Coca Cola, Django, Carnegie Hall, Maureen’s Jazz Cellar, and NJPAC (just to name a few). Destiny has played at the Montclair Jazz Festival every year from 2014 through 2019 and played the Central Jazz Festival in September 2018 and 2019. She also played the Hartford Paul Brown Jazz Festival 2021. Diggs’ has worked with the Christian McBride Big Band, Jon Faddis Quartet, Winard Harper Jelli Pose, TK Blue, along with many others. She also subs for bassists such as Christian McBride, Endea Owens, Reggie Workman, etc.
Kal Ferretti is a jazz trumpet player based in New York City currently studying in her third year at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. She has studied under esteemed faculty such as Bruce Harris, NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Owens, and currently, Alex Norris. At The New School, she has played in ensembles led by NEA Jazz Master Reggie Workman, Dave Glasser, Dave Douglas, and others.
In recent months, Kal has performed at venues such as Birdland, Dizzy’s Club, and the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. She also appears on the Grace Fox Big Band debut record “Eleven O’ Seven.” She has been part of various honor bands including the award winning Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and is an alum of the prestigious LaGuardia High School. With these bands she has attended Essentially Ellington regional competitions and the Charles Mingus High School Competition.
Most recently, Kal has represented The New School at the Keep and Eye Jazz Competition in Amsterdam and was one of three selected students that participated in the 32nd annual International Association of Schools of Jazz Conference (founded by Dave Liebman) in New York City.
Swiss/Dutch saxophonist Charlotte Lang was born in 1996 in Basel and studied the bachelor and master program at the JAZZCAMPUS Basel under the guidance of Domenic Landolf and Daniel Blanc. She is currently studying the Master of Music in Global Jazz at the Berklee College of Music in Boston under the artistic direction of Danilo Pérez. In addition she is part of Terri Lyne Carrington’s Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
From 2015 to 2018, Charlotte she was a member of the Swiss National Youth Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Christian Muthspiel. Since 2020, she became a member of the German National Youth Jazz Orchestra (Bundesjazzorchester Deutschland), under the direction of Niels Klein and Ansgar Striepens. She also plays is the Austrian FJO (Frauen Jazz Orchester→Women Jazz Orchestra of Austria).
In 2021, Charlotte founded her own Quintet the „Charlotte Lang Group“, for what she is composing, arranging and booking. In the fall 2023, her first album will be recorded and hopefully released by a renowned label.
Charlotte plays in the “Swiss Jazz Orchestra” and the “Zurich Jazz Orchestra”, the two professional Big Bands of Switzerland.
Charlotte recently got the unique opportunity to write a monthly blog for the Swiss Jazz & Blues Magazine called JAZZTIME, to tell readers about her time at abroad and specifically her time at Berklee. Her graduate program lasts only until the summer of 2023. She hopes to stay in the United States to enlarge her network and build her musical career.
SISTERS IN JAZZ
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
ELLEN ROWE
ELLEN ROWE
Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. Prior to her appointment in Michigan, she served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Ms. Rowe has performed at jazz clubs and on concert series throughout the U.S., as well as touring in Europe, South Africa and Australia. CDs out under her own name include “Sylvan Way”, “Wishing Well”, “Denali Pass” and “Courage Music.” Her latest project, “Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion”, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, Marion Hayden and Allison Miller was released to widespread critical acclaim in January 2019. The “Momentum” band will be featured at the 2022 Jazz Education Network Conference. Also active as a clinician, she has given workshops and master classes at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik in Cologne, Grieg Academy in Bergen and the Royal Academy of Music in London, in addition to many appearances as a guest artist at festivals and Universities around the country.
When not leading her own small groups, she is in demand as a sideman, having performed with a wide variety of artists including Kenny Wheeler, Tim Ries, Frank Morgn, Tom Harrell, John Clayton, Ingrid Jensen and Steve Turre. She was also a guest on two installments of Marian McPartland’s “Piano Jazz” on National Public Radio.
Ms. Rowe’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by jazz ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the Village Vanguard Orchestra, BBC Jazz Orchestra, U.S. Navy Commodores, Berlin and NDR Radio Jazz Orchestras, London Symphony, DIVA and the Perth Jazz Orchestra. Many of these works can be heard on recordings including “Leave It To DIVA”, “The Perth Jazz Orchestra”, “Bingo” (The Bird of Paradise Orchestra) and “I Believe In You” (DIVA). A recipient of jazz ensemble commissions from the Minnesota Band Directors Association, Illinois Music Educators, Lawrence University’s Fred Sturm Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Education Network, her big band compositions are currently published by Sierra Music Publications, Doug Beach Music and Kendor Music.
Having been selected to conduct the NAfME All-Eastern and All-Northwest Jazz Ensembles as well as All-State jazz ensembles throughout the country, she has also been an invited clinician at the National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Convention, International Society for Jazz Composition and Arranging Symposium and Jazz Education Network conferences. She is on the Board of the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers and also serves as the Coordinator for the JEN Sisters In Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition. Other activities include serving as an adjudicator and mentor for the JEN Young Composers Showcase, adjudicating the 2019 Kimmel Center Jazz Residencies and Lincoln Center Ertegun Hall of Fame. She also serves on the faculty of the NJPAC All-Female Jazz Residency in Newark, NJ. In 2017 she was named a UCROSS Composer Fellow and awarded a residency at the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
SISTERS IN JAZZ ALUMNAE
- Molly Redfield – Bass
- Summer Camargo – Trumpet
- Carmen Murray – Drumset
- Yeeun Kim – Piano
- Staphanie Tateiwa – Saxophone
- Jordyn Davis – Bass
- Minnie Jordan – Violin
- Megan Lock – Drums
- Alexandra Ridout – Trumpet
- Yvonne Rogers – Piano
- Samantha Spear – Sax
- Domi Edson – Bass
- Misaki Nakamichi – Drums
- Maya Keren – Piano
- Kate Williams – Trumpet
- Zahria Sims – Saxophone
- Colleen Clark – Drums
- Sarah Hanahan – Alto Saxophone
- Summer Kodama – Bass
- Marion Powers – Voice
- Franchesca Romero – Piano
- The Jazz Education Network (JEN), founded in 2010, formed the Women in Jazz Committee in 2018, and re-established the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Combo Competition.
- Ashley Baker – Alto Sax
- Christie Dashiell – Voice
- Judith Goldbach – Bass
- Julia Brav – Piano
- Shirazette Tinnin – Drums
- Chelsea Baratz – Tenor Sax
- Sharel Cassity – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Vanessa McGowan – Bass
- Mika Nishimura- Piano
- Tina Raymond – Drums
- Misty Boyce – Piano
- Caroline Davis – Alto Sax
- Lauren Falls – Bass
- Melissa Gardiner – Trombone
- Lorie Wolf – Drums
- Lakecia Benjamin – Alto Sax
- Jacquelyn Coleman – Trumpet
- Delandria Mills – Flute
- Hanne Pulli – Drums
- Maeve Royce – Bass
- Carmen Staaf – Piano
- Ariel Alexander – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Brenda Earle – Piano
- Maria Joyner – Drums
- Linda Oh – Bass
- Janelle Reichman – Tenor Sax
- Kara Baldus – Piano
- Elizabeth Goodfellow – Drums
- Nicole Johaenntgen – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Jennifer Krupa – Trombone
- Ashley Summers – Bass
- Renee Marie Cruz – Bass
- Alyssa Falk – Drums
- Becky Noble – Alto Sax
- Tineke Postma – Alto Sax
- Daniela Schaechter – Piano
- Airelle Besson – Trumpet
- Laila Biali – Piano
- Karine Chapdelaine – Bass
- Tara Davidson – Alto, Soprano Sax
- Sandra Hempel – Guitar
- Kimberly Thompson – Drums
- Brandi Disterheft – Bass
- Anne Drummond – Flute
- Lisa Kelly Scott – Voice
- Karen Teperberg – Drums
- Chihiro Yamanaka – Piano
- Rosana Calderon Eckert – Voice
- Rachel Eckroth – Piano
- Tia Fuller – Alto Sax
- Karin Harris – Trombone
- Erin Marie Roberts – Bass
- Angie Tabor – Drums
- Sara Caswell – Violin
- Dawn Clement – Piano
- Anat Cohen – Tenor Sax, Clarinet
- Loraine Faina – Drums
- Jodi Proznick – Bass
