The Ravinia Steans Music Institute kicks off Summer 2022 with the Bridges Composition Competition concert at Bennett Gordon Hall on June 3. Introduced in 2018 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Steans Music Institute, the annual Bridges Composition Competition challenges young professional composers to write new works for string quartet and jazz trio, bridging the worlds of classical and jazz.
This year’s Bridges concert will feature the world premieres of winning compositions Moment to Journey by Jisu Jung, Reconciliation by William Kjeer, and Lullabye and Dreams by Gary “Kaiji” Wang, as well as encore performances of the 2020 winners by Steven Feifke, Addison Frei, and Zachary Rich, who saw their pieces receive their world premieres last summer only via livestream.
2022 Bridges Composition Competition Winners
Get to know this year’s winning artists below before their big show!
Gary (Kaiji) Wang
Gary “Kaiji” Wang is a pianist, composer, and arranger originally from Beijing, China. He has arranged works for such notable musicians as Toninho Horta and Alan Ferber. Wang is a three-time recipient of ASCAP’s Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards (2020–22), as well as a winner of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2022 Bridges Competition. He is also a three-time winner of the Downbeat Student Music Awards in the Jazz Arrangement category (2018, 2021–22), earning the Outstanding Jazz Arrangement Award in 2021. Wang has earned first place in the 2020 Van Alexander Award for Instrumental Arranging and the 2020 Irwin Kostal Award for Orchestration from ASMAC, and he was a finalist of the 2020 American Prize (Chamber Division). His big band work has been selected for performance at the 2022 Jazz Education Network Conference. Outside the sphere of jazz music, Wang works as a professional composer/arranger for many pop artists, video games, and TV shows.
“Lullabye and Dreams is a composition written for a jazz quartet and a string quartet. In this piece, the composer is not only trying to incorporate unconventional instrumentation but also utilize some classical harmonic vocabularies,” Wang shared of his winning composition.
Jisu Jung
Jisu Jung’s musical prodigy was recognized at an early age. She is a past winner of the Osaka International Piano Competition, the Korean Music Association Piano Competition, the Berklee College of Music Writing-Composition Award and Composer-Pianist Award, and the ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Award Young Jazz Composer Award, among other honors and prizes. She studied classical music in Germany by invitation of renowned music professor Zenziper, chair of the Music College of Dresden. While in Germany, she was introduced to jazz music and fell in love its creativity, quickly developing a passion for jazz composition and performance. Also an alum of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, she is currently in the first year of master’s degree studies at the Manhattan School of Music, focusing on jazz composition. A highlight of her jazz musical formation was playing with Grammy Award winner Nicholas Payton.
“In the spring of 2021, I began to think about how, during the COVID-era, many people (including myself) were yearning for freedom. I wanted to express this desire through music, which is how Moment to Journey was born. I wanted to take listeners on a journey away from the restrictive COVID-era reality by providing a momentary release, a space relieved from limitations,” Jung said of her winning piece.
William Kjeer
Dynamic, tenacious, and highly inventive, pianist and composer Will Kjeer has defined himself as an artist to watch, both literally and figuratively. Refracted through his many musical sensibilities and influences, a refined and powerful pianistic profile has garnered Kjeer performances at major venues for audiences across America, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall in Chicago. He has shared the stage with many world-class performers including Dave King (The Bad Plus, Happy Apple), Jerry Bergonzi (Dave Brubeck, Elvin Jones), and Adam Nussbaum (Stan Getz, Michael Brecker). Kjeer is an alum of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the 2018 winner of the Angel City Jazz Festival Young Artist Competition, a 2019 Yamaha Young Performing Artist, and a Jazz Fest Bonn International JazzBeet Competition finalist. He holds a BFA in Jazz Studies from the California Institute of the Arts.
“The name was inspired by the nature of our shared experience during these last two years and also by our unique personal journeys; the things that have happened to us as individuals and how we’ve coped with them amidst the broader storm. I hope that everyone can find something to relate to and reflect upon as the arc of Reconciliation unfolds,” Kjeer shared of Reconciliation.
2020 Bridges Composition Competition Winners
Steven Feifke
Recognized as one of the leading composers for Big Band by the Recording Academy, producer of the Grammy's and heralded a “masterful pianist” by JAZZIZ Magazine, Steven Feifke is an award winning bandleader, composer, and arranger who has appeared on over thirty records before turning 30 years old. An internationally recognized composer, arranger, and orchestrator, Feifke is the recipient of the 2020 David Baker Prize from the Ravinia Festival, and has written for orchestras around the world including Orchestra Senzapine in Florence, Italy, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. A respected educator, Feifke sits on faculty at Berklee College of Music and The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. In addition to frequent guest lecturer and guest artist visits at educational institutions around the US including New York University, Yale University, Northern Illinois University, and more, Feifke maintains a small private Zoom studio of inspired composition and jazz piano students.
Zachary Rich
Zach Rich is a multi-award-winning composer, trombonist, and educator from Wichita, KS. Rich has written music for many professional ensembles and organizations including the New York Youth Symphony, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Texas Music Educators Association, the Oklahoma Music Educators Association, Pathways to Jazz, and many universities and high schools throughout the country. His works have also received recognition by organizations such as ISJAC, the Jazz Education Network, ASCAP, ASMAC, Down Beat Magazine, Pathways to Jazz, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Currently based in Colorado, Rich writes for and performs with a variety of ensembles throughout the Front Range and Midwest areas. His debut album, Boundless, is available on all streaming platforms.
Addison Frei
From early experiences playing community theater and big band dance halls in Lawrence, KS, to summiting musical heights in New York and abroad, pianist Addison Frei (“Fry”) has brought joy to countless audiences through a warm musical spirit and melodic sensibility. His latest album Time and Again (Next Paradigm Music) aims in the tradition of classic trio records, enhanced by the company of Ben Wolfe on bass and Terreon Gully on drums. He has won first prize in several competitions including the 2017 Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition, the 2016 UNISA International Jazz Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, and the 2015 American Jazz Pianist Competition. Frei’s lyrical pianism has made him a favorite accompanist for many vocalists, including Leslie Odom Jr., Renée Elise Goldsberry, Janis Siegel, and the late Carol Fredette.
RSMI jazz fans can look forward to yet another electrifying evening on June 10, when the Jazz Grandstand concert at Bennett Gordon Hall will feature original music from the 15 fellows of the 2022 Program for Jazz.