The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music has opened applications for its Jazz Leaders Fellowship, a $12,500 award dedicated to supporting emerging Black women and Black nonbinary jazz musicians.
Now in its fifth year, the fellowship provides recipients with financial support, rehearsal space and opportunities to develop projects that advance their artistic careers, according to a press release. Since its launch in 2021, the program has awarded eight musicians, selecting two new fellows each year.
“We’re so excited to be celebrating our fifth year of the Jazz Leaders Fellowship, an initiative that has had a lasting impact on the artists involved, the Conservatory’s jazz program, and the community at large,” said Chad Cooper, executive director of Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. "One of the goals of JLF was to build a network of musicians whose relationships with each other and with BKCM lasted well beyond the fellowship year. We’ve witnessed exactly that: Fellows have curated our annual Midsummer Nights jazz festival, uplifting the work of so many Black women and nonbinary musicians."
Fellows have returned to teach master classes, come back to gig at BKCM's House Party and at the annual Open Stages music festival, Cooper said.
Fellowship winners are tasked with developing one public performance as the leader of an ensemble and working with BKCM’s Community Music School Jazz Program Director to engage students through their artistry.
Melanie Charles, a 2023-24 Jazz Leadership fellow and Grammy winner, said the support alleviated financial stress.
“The financial support has been huge because it meant I didn’t have to take every gig,” she said. “Reinvigorating my relationship with BKCM has given me hope: The music industry is complex, but there are still spaces where like-minded people can do work that really matters.”
Click here for more information about the fellowship.
