Juilliard’s Andrew Wangemann Wins 2016 Chuckii Booker Scholarship
The BMI Foundation has announced jazz drummer/composer Andrew Wangemann as the winner of the 2016 Chuckii Booker Scholarship. Established in 2010, the $5,000 scholarship is awarded every other year to a student demonstrating excellence in jazz performance and composition and salutes award-winning musician/producer Chuckii Booker. Under the direction of GRAMMY-winning musician Wynton Marsalis, Juilliard’s Jazz Studies faculty selected Andrew as this year’s award recipient. At 28 years old, Andrew holds a Bachelor of Music from Juilliard and is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Drums as a second-year graduate student. Earlier this year, Andrew and other members of the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble A performed at Newark’s historic WBGO jazz station in honor of Jazz Appreciation Month. A recording of their performance can be heard here.
“I am very grateful to the many mentors who have contributed to my growth as a person and as a musician and to the BMI Foundation for presenting me with this award,” said Andrew. “As a drummer and not having spent much time early on with a melodic and harmonic instrument, it has been challenging to understand music theory and composition. This award is meaningful to me because I have been striving hard to improve my ability in these areas. It also came at a great time as I am currently planning a recording project of my original music. This scholarship will help me to complete my education at Juilliard and still have the funds that I need to invest in my career.”
Drummer Andrew Wangemann grew up in Orem, Utah. As a high school student, Andrew was a member of The Music Schoolʼs Crescent Super Band, which won a DOWNBEAT award in 2007 while he was a member. The band performed with numerous artists including Terrell Stafford, Dennis Irwin, Larry Goldings, Terreon Gully, Matt Wilson, and Bobby Shew and performed at many venues and festivals including The North Sea Jazz Festival, The Park City Jazz Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Centerʼs Dizzyʼs Club Coca-Cola.
Andrew was the drum-set player for the International Association of Jazz Education Community College All-Star Big Band and performed at the 2007 IAJE Conference in New York City with guest director Wycliffe Gordon.
In April 2013, Andrew performed with a Jazz quartet in an exciting collaboration with the Juilliard Dance Department, performing a work choreographed by Murray Louis titled, “Four Brubeck Pieces.” Andrew participated in the Gluck Community Service Fellowship during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school-years, wherein he led ensembles in over twenty four performances in New York City health care facilities.
He is also a group leader in the Hire Juilliard Performers program in which he acts as a liaison between clients and the Alan D. Marks Center for Career Services and Entrepreneurship, in order to create contracts and provide live music for various events. During the 2015-16 school-year, Andrew was a member of the Juilliard Jazz program’s, Composer’s Ensemble, in which two of his works were selected and performed at a concert in the spring.
The BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization, incorporated in the state of New York in February 1984, and dedicated to the creation, performance and study of music, in fields including but not limited to music education, the preservation of the indigenous American jazz form, and the creation and exposure to audiences of contemporary music, particularly in the areas of classical, jazz, and musical theatre. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation may be made on our website. For exclusive news and content, follow @bmifoundation on Twitter and like “BMI Foundation” on Facebook.