gives me goosebumps every time i listen to this masterpiece! thank you for sharing!

Tom? how's it going? this song deserves more recognition

Still

Runaway

The Next Generation Jazz Orchestra plays “Omnibus” by Los Angeles pianist Luca Mendoza at the 59th Monterey Jazz Festival. Mendoza received the 2016 Gerald Wilson Award for the winning piece from the Next Generation Jazz Festival’s composition competition. The performance was on Sunday, September 18, 2016 in the Arena at 12:30pm. Mendoza was also accepted to the 2016 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. Photo ©Monterey Jazz Festival / Craig Lovell.

Mendoza, 16 is a junior at Crossroads School in Los Angeles. In 2015, he received an LA Music Center Spotlight Award for piano performance, a DownBeat Student Music Award for composition, and was a National Young Arts Foundation winner. For the past five years, Luca has also participated in Colburn Musical Encounters, which fosters music education throughout Los Angeles inner city schools. He studies piano with Alan Pasqua and Rina Dokshitsky, and is the son of composer and arranger Vince Mendoza. His other awards include first or honorable mentions in the Southwest Youth Music Festival and Glendale classical competitions, as well as Outstanding Solo Award at the 2015 Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival. He has also recently performed chamber music with the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute during a live radio broadcast at the LA County Museum of Art. 

Each year since 2005 at the Next Generation Jazz Festival, the Big Band Composition Competition is open to student composers currently enrolled in high school.

Compositions are judged by college-level music faculty, and the winning composer receives the Gerald Wilson Award, named in honor of the late legendary composer, arranger and trumpeter who was a friend of Monterey Jazz Festival for many years.

The winning composition is performed on the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the Arena at the annual Monterey Jazz Festival by the Festival's all-star student band, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and the student composer is given the Gerald Wilson Award.

Live at the 2016 Monterey Jazz Festival

Luca Mendoza "Omnibus" at the 59th Monterey Jazz Festival (2016)

The 2017 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra plays “Chicken Bones” by Los Angeles pianist Luca Mendoza at the 60th Monterey Jazz Festival, Sunday, September 17, 2017 in the Arena.

Mendoza received the 2017 Gerald Wilson Award for the winning piece from the Next Generation Jazz Festival’s composition competition. Mendoza was also accepted to the 2017 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. for the second year in a row.

Luca Mendoza, 18, is a classical and jazz pianist and composer. Luca is the 2016 National YoungArts Foundation Finalist for Jazz Piano, a 2015/2016 YoungArts Merit Winner for Jazz Composition, and a LA Music Center Spotlight Grand Prize Finalist.

As an Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellow, he has participated in workshops with top-notch composers and individual talks with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. With the program, his compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Calder Quartet and the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, as well as members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale and ICE.

A two-time member of the Monterey Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, he has received two Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival Outstanding Solo Awards as well as two Gerald Wilson Awards for composition.

He has received seven DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards (in combo composition, large ensemble composition, and combo performance), a 2016 Herb Alpert ASCAP award, and was a finalist in the 2017 Jazz Education Network Composer Showcase. He has also been accepted into the 2017 NARAS Grammy Band, the 2014 and 2015 Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colonies, and the 2015 Vail Jazz Workshop. 

Luca will be majoring in Classical Composition at the University of Southern California in the fall.

About the Gerald Wilson Award

Each year since 2005 at the Next Generation Jazz Festival, the Big Band Composition Competition is open to student composers currently enrolled in high school.

Compositions are judged by college-level music faculty, and the winning composer receives the Gerald Wilson Award, named in honor of the late legendary composer, arranger and trumpeter who was a friend of Monterey Jazz Festival for many years.

The winning composition is performed on the Jimmy Lyons Stage in the Arena at the annual Monterey Jazz Festival by the Festival's all-star student band, the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and the student composer is given the Gerald Wilson Award.

Luca Mendoza, "Chicken Bones" at MJF60 (2017)

Heaven & Hell

Loungy

At The End Of The Day

Can't Think Of Better Days

Sunny Days Are Near

Nobody Loves Like You

Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awv6_xrPU3Q
Available on Spotify, Itunes, Deezer and Tidal

At The End Of The Day

Tom Fox

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