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Conad Jazz Contest, Making Even More Space For Talent

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This year, the promoters have come up with initiatives to boost talent, adopting new and additional ways of supporting the artistic careers of young musicians.
Conad and Umbria Jazz renew their partnership promoting the fifth edition of the Contest dedicated to young artists under 35. As well as the usual chance to perform on the Festival stage (Perugia, July 8-17, 2016) awarded to the ten finalists, there will be two additional acknowledgements: a 5,000 euro prize for the winner, chosen by the Artistic Panel of Judges chaired by Renzo Arbore, and a 500 euro voucher for the performer with the most votes from the on-line community, which will be used to record an album in a professional recording studio.

On Wednesday 16 March it will be possible to start enrolling in the Conad Jazz Contest, a music competition promoted by Conad and Umbria Jazz—with the patronage of the Umbria Region and the Municipality of Perugia—which gives space to the talent of young Italian or foreign musicians under 35 (solo artists and groups) playing jazz tunes of various types and styles, including crossovers. Competitors will have time until Tuesday May 10, 2016 to enroll free of charge by simply uploading three tracks to the Conad Jazz Contest website or to the Facebook page with the same name. As always, the ten finalists will be able to perform on the Festival stage, in Perugia from July 8 to 17, 2016.

This year, the promoters have come up with initiatives to boost talent, adopting new and additional ways of supporting the artistic careers of young musicians: for the first time in the history of the Contest, the winner—chosen by the Artistic Panel of Judges, chaired by Renzo Arbore—will be awarded a 5,000 euro prize to go towards developing their musical career. And it doesn’t stop there. Driven by the same spirit, the group or solo artist most voted by the on-line community will be awarded a 500 euro voucher, which will go towards recording an album in a professional recording studio (chosen by the winner). Furthermore, this year the partnership with Deezer has also been confirmed, the global music streaming service where it will be possible to exclusively listen to the compilation of tracks by the 10 finalists, and with Zimbalam, a digital aggregator which will take care of distributing the tracks.

“The Contest was created to provide numerous young talents with an opportunity—comments Francesco Pugliese, CEO of Conad—who often in our country are not given the space to express their skills, not just in music, but in many other areas too. This is why we continue to invest in this project. We want to give young talents an increasingly concrete role: we want to offer them more than just a chance of exposure, we want to give them a real opportunity to construct their future. The decision to increasingly broaden the scope of the prizes and the recipients involved- from economic rewards to the partnership with big players in the music industry—is pushing in this direction".

Yet again this year, there will be two panels of judges selecting the new jazz talents: a panel of technical judges—made up of jazz musicians and representatives from our two partners, Deezer and Zimbalam—who will choose 9 finalists, and a popular panel of judges open to everyone, who will be able to express their vote on-line (through the Conad Jazz Contest website) or using mobile devices, and who will be able to select the tenth finalist.

During the 2016 edition, the role of the popular panel of judges will not stop at the nomination phase: once the 10 finalists have been identified, on-line voting will be re-opened and the on-line community will be free to express itself again and vote for its favourite among the top 10. The most voted for during this second phase will clinch a 500 euro voucher, to be spent on recording an album in a professional recording studio.

The final list of ratings from 1 to 10 (regardless of the popular vote) will be drawn up by the artistic panel of judges, chaired by Renzo Arbore, and made up of Nicola Sinisi, director of Radio Rai, Marco Molendini, music critic and journalist for “Il Messaggero”, Luca Conti, director of “Musica Jazz” monthly magazine, Donatella Miliani, journalist for “La Nazione Umbria” and Giovanni Guidi, pianist. The winner will not only be awarded a prize of 5,000 euro, but will also be included in the line-up of Umbria Jazz Winter #24 (Orvieto, December 28, 2016 to January 1, 2017).

Renzo Arbore, chairman of the Jury and chairman of the Umbria Jazz Foundation, underlines the link between the results of the competition and the current artistic fervour on the Italian jazz scene, a big motivating factor for young artists: “What is new today is that thanks to the success and creativity of many of our leading musicians- some have even overtaken their American counterparts—Italian jazz acts as a trailblazer and role model for the new generations who have embraced this extraordinary musical language. A model that is well sculpted, without any doubt, in our DNA".

The competition will also be very tough on an individual level: as usual, this year there will be a special prize for the most promising solo artist, who will be reserved a place at the Berklee Summer School 2017 at Umbria Jazz Clinics.

It is possible to enroll from March 16 to May 10, 2016. On-line voting for the nomination stage closes on Sunday, May 15, 2016.

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