From Jazz Studies to the Junos
That seven CapU alumni and two instructors are nominated for Juno Awards is music to Jared Burrows's ears.
"I just take it as confirmation," says Burrows, Jazz Studies coordinator and instructor. "It's evidence that we're preparing people to contribute artistically to music at the highest levels."
Bria Skonberg and Amanda Tosoff are nominated for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year, with drummer Morgan Childs playing on Tosoffs album, Words, and saxophonist Evan Arntzen, on Bria. The album Everyone Knows Everyone by Pugs and Crows, which includes CapU alumni Cole Schmidt, Russell Sholberg and Catherine Toren, is nominated for Instrumental Album of the Year.
Skonberg moved to New York and saw success, even appearing in a Vanity Fair magazine article about millennials shaking up the jazz world. Arntzen moved to the Big Apple, Skonberg asked him to play on her album and now he'll benefit from her Juno nod.
"People create a community of collaborators here at Cap and they create professional connections that serve them into the future," Burrows says. "People stick together and do important things."
It's not only Cap grads that are nominated for 2017 Juno Awards but also two faculty members. Jazz instructor Brad Turner is nominated as a member of Metalwood for Jazz Album of the Year: Group for Twenty. Warren Dean Flandez, Arts & Entertainment Management instructor, is nominated for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year for Eternally Grateful.
The nominees were announced in February and the awards will be handed out during Juno Week, March 27 to April 2, in Ottawa, with the award show airing April 2.
"It'll be interesting to see who actually takes one," says Burrows. "It's really inspiring for our current students who look up to those who are achieving things. It inspires and motivated them to pursue their dreams."
Submitted by: Cheryl Rossi, Communications & Marketing