Berklee College of Music and the Monterey Jazz Festival have announced that trombonist Calvin Barthel, of Albany, Calif., is the fifteenth recipient of the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship at Berklee, a major music education prize. The full-tuition scholarship is named in honor of the festival’s late founder, James L. (Jimmy) Lyons, who began the festival 54 years ago with jazz education at its core. Barthel is the first trombonist to receive the Lyons Scholarship.
The Lyons Scholarship is awarded each year to one music student in recognition of their outstanding talent. Previously restricted to student musicians from the state of California, this year marks the third time the scholarship competition has been open to young musicians from the western United States. Because it is a full-tuition, renewable award, satisfactory academic and musical progress in each successive year will allow each Lyons Scholar to attend Berklee through graduation, entirely tuition-free.
Previous Lyons Scholars include trumpeter Erik Telford (performing on the festival this year), saxophonist Dayna Stephens (Kenny Barron), drummer James Williams (Gary Burton), cellist Rushad Eggleston (Crooked Still, Fiddlers Four), violinist Alex Hargreaves (Mike Marshall, Sarah Jarosz), and drummer Thomas Pridgen (The Mars Volta), among others.
In pursuit of his passion for jazz and improvisational-based music, Barthel began his studies at Berklee in Boston earlier this month. He will sit in with his new classmates in the band Berklee Flamenco on Friday, September 16, at 9:30 p.m. on the Garden Stage, and again on Saturday, September 18, at 5:00 p.m., in the Coffee House Gallery.
Monterey Jazz Festival Trustee Carsbia Anderson, chair of the Festival’s Education Committee, and Berklee alumnus Erik Telford, the first recipient of the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship, will make the Lyons presentation to Calvin Barthel at the festival on Sunday, September 18, at 2:00 pm, on the Jimmy Lyons Stage.
Barthel, 18, is a graduate of Albany High School in Albany, California where he played in the jazz band, jazz combo, wind ensemble and was a member of the R&B and funk group, Rhythm Bound. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, he has been a member of the Jazzschool’s Monday Night Studio Band, which placed first in the Conglomerate Big Band division at the Next Generation Jazz Festival three years in a row.
Calvin Barthel, 18, Wins Berklee/Monterey Jazz Scholarship
First trombonist to be awarded the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship
