Kai Spatzier Awarded 2024 BMI Future Jazz Masters Award
Kai Spatzier
Recipient of the 2024 Future Jazz Masters Award
Washington D.C. - April 15th - BMI Foundation, Inc. is thrilled to announce that LA-based jazz musician Kai Spatzier is the winner of the 2024 BMI Future Jazz Masters Award. The announcement was made on Friday evening at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Annual Jazz Masters Awards Dinner held in celebration of the NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on April 13th.
A senior at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, Kai is among the youngest winners in the 10-year history of the award. Starting as a classical pianist at the age of four, Spatzier has been performing jazz piano for six years. He has studied with Stuart Elster, Vardan Ovsepian, JB Dyas, and Bill Cunliffe, and plays for the LAUSD All City Big Band and the Colburn Thursday Night Band under the direction of JB Dyas and Lee Secard respectively. His award-winning submissions include arrangements of “In a Sentimental Mood” and “Anthropology,” and his original composition “Everywhere at Once.” On receiving the award, Spatzier stated, “I am honored to receive the BMI Future Jazz Master Award and will use it to benefit my future as a jazz composer and pianist.”
The BMI Future Jazz Master Award is a $5,000 career grant created in 2015 through a gift from BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) in honor of the long-standing NEA recognition program for jazz artists, creators, advocates and educators. The recipient is selected based on three examples of their work, at least one of which must be an original composition. The adjudication for the national competition is based on both performance artistry and compositional ability. Spatzier was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Future Jazz Masters award by a panel of judges including NEA Jazz Masters Terri Lyne Carrington and Delfeayo Marsalis.
For a second time, the award will include the Ahrold Family Commission, adding $1,500 to the prize to create a new work for an ensemble of the winner’s choosing. The commission is generously funded by retired Vice President of Corporate Relations for BMI Robbin Ahrold and his wife, Kyle Ahrold. Mr. Ahrold, a lifelong student and appreciator of jazz, originated BMI’s involvement with the NEA Jazz Masters program and still serves the BMI Foundation as a consultant. Last year’s recipient, Christian X. M. McGhee, will be premiering his new composition A Winged Resilience at Jazz at Lincoln Center Dizzy’s Club on May 20th.
About the BMI Foundation, Inc.
The BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to encourage the creation, performance, and study of American music. The Foundation’s programs include competitive scholarships for songwriters and composers, operating grants for nonprofit arts presenters, and support for innovative music education initiatives in schools and communities across the country. For more information about the work of the Foundation, please visit our website at www.bmifoundation.org. For exclusive news and content, follow @bmifoundation on Twitter and Instagram, and like BMI Foundation on Facebook.
