Three jazz artists—saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter and pianist/composers Kris Davis and Danilo Pérez—will receive 2021 Doris Duke Artist Awards.
Sponsored by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the award comprises a grant of $275,000 to each artist, which the Foundation describes as “an investment in their artistic potential and celebration of their ongoing contributions in their respective contemporary fields.” The grant, which is the largest to be given to individual artists in the United States, includes $225,000 in unrestricted funding, $25,000 in audience development funds, and $25,000 for artists to save toward later stages of their career.
Shorter, the most famous of the three jazz award recipients, turned 88 in August. The long-awaited official premiere of his opera Iphigenia, composed in collaboration with Esperanza Spalding, will take place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on December 10.
Recent jazz artists to have received the Artist Award include Andrew Cyrille and Cécile McLorin Salvant in 2020; Terri Lyne Carrington and George Lewis in 2019; and Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter, and Stefon Harris in 2018. Davis is also a past recipient of the Foundation’s $80,000 Impact Award, which she received in 2018.
Visit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s website for more information.
