Jazz breaking news: Scottish Jazz Pianist Alan Benzie Awarded Prestigious Scholarship
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Earlier this week it was announced that 21-year-old Glaswegian Alan Benzie is this year’s recipient of the Billboard Magazine Endowed Scholarship, a prize which is awarded to current students with strong academic records and who show promise in their future career as a recording artist and performer.
With this Benzie becomes the first UK jazz musician to win this award, which was established in 1995 as a major gift from Billboard and allows students to continue their studies at Berklee within the performance division.
Benzie began to play music when he was just eight years old, initially playing classical violin; he moved to jazz piano while studying at St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, a specialist boarding school for young musicians. He obviously flourished during his time at St. Mary’s as he later went on to perform at jazz festivals in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. Since then he has moved on to the Boston based music school, and like other nearby universities, Berklee is regarded as one of the most prestigious schools in modern music. The college has seen such luminaries as Pat Metheny, Diana Krall and Quincy Jones pass through its corridors and previous winners of this award have shown similar promise. The likes of which include Jaleel Shaw and Walter Smith III, as well as others who have gone on to have careers with the likes of singer/songwriter John Mayer, Greg Osby and Roy Haynes.
– Colm Doyle