Morgan Zwicker collects his $1,000 prize from Awesome Foundation trustees. photo credit: John McCarthy
The creator of a new improvised jazz ensemble for students is the latest winner from the Awesome Foundation of the South Shore.
Morgan Zwicker, the winner of the donation, intends to start the Lunenburg County Enriched Jazz Youth Ensemble, which will teach band students how to perform improvised, unscripted music.
“I faced that issue when I was a student in band; I wanted a more enriched experience with difficult music and I wasn’t getting that in school,” he said.
He hopes to start the program in the fall, which will run over an eight week period. The program will take students between 13-18, and allows them to experience performance in a smaller, less scripted ensemble.
Zwicker says he intends on using the $1,000 prize to pay for guest musicians and speakers to hold performance workshops for students.
“There will be four people conducting workshops with students every second week for 45 minutes, which is half the total session length for each week,” he said.
“They are going to be people I’ve either played with in a jazz setting in Halifax, or someone I know through organizations that are available, such as Suddenly Listen, a Halifax based organization focusing on improvised music, and another called Upstream Music.”
The program will be extracurricular for students, and will be held within Hebbville Academy after hours for its first run.
The next Awesome award will be handed out July 26 at the Big Ex in Bridgewater.
