2022 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards
Nominees, jazz Composition (Emerging Division)
salvatore cirillo, caserta, italy
I graduated from the Conservatory of Music in Piano, Harpsichord, Composition, and Jazz arrangement. I perfectionated my composition studies at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre or Italian National film school) in Rome (Italy). I won some International Jazz Competition as a composer and orchestrator and, in others, I was a finalist.
claire cope, manchester, united kingdom
Claire studied piano at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where she won the John Ireland prize and the Principal’s Prize for Improvisation in 2011. She has performed across the UK, including at the Royal Albert Hall, the Bridgewater Hall, the Manchester Jazz Festival and the London Jazz Festival. She has released two albums as a bandleader, ‘Lines’ by the Claire James Trio in 2011, and ‘Small World’ by Ensemble C, a new septet featuring some of the UK’s finest jazz musicians, in 2020. She has also appeared on Jemma Freese’ 2022 album ‘Shadow Boxing’, and played in Andy Scott’s ‘Mancunity’ band as part of the Manchester Jazz Festival Commission in 2019. As a composer, as well as writing music for her own band, Claire has composed the solo piano score for Rob Cope’s film ‘Richard Turner – A Life In Music’ and a 2022 commission for the Apollo Saxophone Quartet. She was honoured to be nominated for a Marvin Hamlisch International Award in the category of jazz composition in 2021. Claire is also a passionate educator, and an examiner for the ABRSM.
ally fiola, halifax, canada
Ally Fiola is a saxophonist and film composer from Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the bandleader of the traditional jazz and funk-inspired combo, The Next Quest, which performs Ally’s original arrangements. Ally released her debut solo jazz album, Dreaming Away, in July 2018, which was nominated for Jazz Recording of the Year at the 2019 Music Nova Scotia Awards. Additionally, she was also nominated for Best Jazz Musician of the Year in 2019 and 2021 for the local Halifax newspaper, The Coast. Ally is currently preparing to record her second original jazz album in August 2022, which will include globally renown saxophonist Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) as a guest artist.
OLIVIANA MARIE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA
Oliviana Marie is a rising sophomore studying Composition at USC’s Thornton School of Music. She has written 4 award winning musicals. The most recent, CORONA’S CABARET: An Act of Destruction (book/ music/ lyrics) where Oliviana portrayed the Coronavirus as a nightclub singer debuting her “act ” was the winner of PLAYBILL’S Virtual Theatre Festival. During her freshman year Oliviana scored two short films (AFI and Concordia University), participated in Salastina’s Sounds Promising program (mentored by Derrick Skye) Pasadena Chorale’s Listening to the Future (mentored by Saunder Choi) The Los Angeles Music Center's Swing Out (Mentored by Ron Wilkins), was the associate MD for a USC student run production of The Addams Family, and assisted director Alberto Arvelo and conductor Gustavo Dudamel (writing all the staging into the orchestral score) for the LA Phil/ Deaf West production of Fidelio. She plays piano and trumpet and as a vocalist Oliviana was this year’s first place winner of The Glenn Miller Big Band Scholarship Award.
LUCA POLETTI, ROME, ITALY
Luca Poletti passionate composer, arranger and pianist, has arranged for many orchestras and has collaborated with lot of talents around the world. Among others, he comes to the fore in the 2011 European Jazz Contest (Composer) (1st prize overall),Indie Gathering Film scoring festival (Ohio) (2nd prize), Baronissi Jazz Contest 2013 (2nd prize), Barga Jazz 2013 (1st prize), European Music Competition - 2nd prize (first non-assenate), International Choral Composition Competition Japan (Tokyo) - Finalist. After his higher academic degrees in Piano, Band Instrumentation, Jazz Music and Composition for Applied Music he moved to New York City during which he had the opportunity to compose and performed for such amazing artists.
He played, performed his own music with artists from all over the world such as: Birdland Big band (NYC), Ian Cooper, Paolo Fresu, Uri Caine, Steve Swallow, Maria Schneider, Fabrizio Bosso, Jeremy Pelt, David Riondino, Stephani Parker (Las Vegas), Orchestra Haydn of Trento and Bolzano and many other artists from Australia, Ukraine, Canada, America - New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Great Britain, Scotland, Africa. He has composed music for the shows for DAMS Roma, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Cineteca Nazionale del Cinema and Policlinico Gemelli and participated in the production of the soundtrack for the film "Il delitto Mattarella" by Aurelio Grimaldi as arranger, composer and pianist. He arranged the "Santa Cecilia" Youth Orchestra for the traditional "Christmas Concert at Montecitorio" at the Chamber of Deputies. He composed, among others, the opera "Peter Pan va alla guerra" (Peter Pan goes to war) for TV author David Riondino which is taken on tour throughout Italy and translated into 6 languages.