Young Elder of Jazz 2018 announced

PBS 106.7FM, in conjunction with the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, will once again recognize a significant mid-career jazz musician with the prestigious PBS Young Elder of Jazz Award. Now in its seventh year the PBS Young Elder of Jazz initiative provides $10,000 to commission a brand new work of contemporary composition to be presented at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.

PBS is delighted to announce that pianist, vocalist and composer Brenton Foster has been selected as the recipient of the PBS Young Elder of Jazz Award for 2018.

At the 2018 Melbourne International Jazz Festival Brenton will present the premiere performance of Love, As We Know It, a work that will feature some of Melbourne’s finest musicians in a collaboration with US poet Christopher Poindexter.

“I am honoured and humbled to become part of an incredible heritage established through the PBS Young Elder Of Jazz Commission. Thank you so much to PBS, Melbourne International Jazz Festival and Mark Newman for giving me this opportunity. I'm inspired to explore new collaborations between poetry and jazz with my song-cycle, ‘Love, As We Know It’. I look forward to sharing it with audiences at the 2018 Melbourne International Jazz Festival.”
Brenton Foster

Previous winners of the PBS Young Elder of Jazz have included Tamara Murphy, Tim Willis, Tilman Robinson, Gian Slater, Joe O’Connor and Hue Blanes. The award continues to reflect the diversity and quality of contemporary jazz music in Melbourne, and PBS is delighted that Brenton Foster will now join this list of exceptional artists.

The PBS Young Elder of Jazz is supported through the generosity of Mark Newman.