Marco Godoy Wins peermusic Latin Scholarship
Ralph N. Jackson, President of the BMI Foundation, Inc. has announced that Marco A. Godoy is the winner of the first annual peermusic Latin Scholarship, a competition for original Latin songs and instrumental compositions. Godoy, a 21-year-old native of Venezuela and a freshman at Berklee College of Music, received a $5,000 scholarship for his instrumental entitled, “My Latin Feel.” The presentation took place on March 16 during the BMI Latin Awards ceremony held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Pictured after the presentation of the BMI Foundation/peermusic Latin Scholarship are BMI Foundation President Ralph Jackson, BMI President & CEO Frances Preston, scholarship recipient Marco Godoy, and peermusic Chairman & CEO Ralph Peer II.
This new BMI Foundation scholarship was established through the generosity of Ralph Peer II and the peermusic companies and was open to students between the ages of 16 and 24 from 17 select schools in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Puerto Rico and Texas.
The judges included Latin Grammy President Gabriel Abaroa, Warner Music Latina’s Amir Agai, BMI’s Dianne J. Almodovar, peermusic’s Julio Bague, songwriter Rodolfo Castillo, BMI songwriter Kike Santander and Warner Music Latina President George Zamora. Founded by Ralph Peer in 1928, peermusic is a global network of music publishing companies operating from 33 offices in 27 countries. With well over a quarter of a million titles in the company’s catalogue, and songs that vary from country, blues, jazz and pop to Latin, concert and rock ‘n’ roll, peermusic is the largest privately owned company of its kind in the world.
The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants. Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation come primarily from songwriters, composers and publishers, BMI employees and members of the public with a special interest in music. Because both the Foundation staff and the distinguished members of the Advisory Panel serve without compensation, over 97% of all donations and income are used for charitable grants.