Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement
The Advisory Board of the Brubeck Institute created The Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement to recognize an individual for his or her outstanding contribution to the world of music and ideas, in an area where Dave Brubeck has made a significant impact upon the world. Such areas include music, religion, civil rights, international relations, environmental issues, and social justice. The Award is determined by the Brubeck Institute Advisory Board and is presented at the annual Brubeck Festival.
Award Recipients
2005 - Joe Gilman
Joe Gilman is music director of the Brubeck Institute's Fellowship Program, artistic director of the Institute's Summer Jazz Colony, professor of music at American River College in Sacramento, and music director of Capital Jazz Project. He has been the primary pianist with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson since 2006, and has also performed professionally with Eddie Harris, Woody Shaw, Marlena Shaw, Richie Cole, Joe Locke, George Duke, Chris Botti, Eric Alexander, David 'Fathead' Newman, and Slide Hampton, and has recorded with Joe Henderson, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, and Robert Hurst. Gilman has twice been an International Jazz Ambassador through the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and USIA. In 2004, he won the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Florida. His work with students in the Brubeck Institute has produced several CDs - Brubeck Revisited, Vols. 1 & 2 (Sunnyside), and Wonder Revisited, Vols. 1 & 2 (Capri) all recorded with Brubeck Institute Fellows Joe Sanders and Justin Brown, the double CD of the 2006-2007 Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, the 2007-2008 CD by the same group, and a double CD of the 2008-2009 group. His work with the 2006-2007 Fellowship students resulted in four 2007 DownBeat Magazine student awards, including the best collegiate jazz group in the country. The 2008-2009 BIJQ again won the best collegiate jazz group in DownBeat under his leadership.
For his outstanding musical performance and creativity, his scholarship, his teaching, and his extraordinary dedication to the mission of the Brubeck Institute and to the ideals of Dave and Iola Brubeck, Dr. Joe Gilman was presented the first Brubeck Scholar Award.
The name of the award was changed in 2006 to The Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement.
2006 - John Salmon
Pianist John Salmon has distinguished himself on four continents as both a classical and jazz artist. In the U.S. He has given recitals for the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Discovery Series in Indianapolis, the Van Cliburn Foundation in Forth Worth, and has appeared in numerous American colleges and universities. His repertoire includes the classics - Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms - though his involvement with contemporary music is equally strong. He has championed new works by celebrated composers such as Dave Brubeck, Nikolai Kapustin, and Lalo Schifrin. Dr. Salmon's performances have been heard on radio stations throughout the U.S. and on national radio stations throughout the world. He is a frequent performer at festivals in the U.S. and Europe including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, Piano Festival Northwest in Oregon, Interlochen Piano Festival in Michigan, Festival Internacional de Musica del Mediterraneo in Spain, and the International Bartok Festival in Hungary. He has recorded three CDs of Dave Brubeck's classical piano music, one released on Phoenix and two other on Naxos. He is also well known as a author and lecturer. Dr. Salmon has been a member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music since 1989.
For his commitment and advancement of the music and ideas of Dave Brubeck through scholarly inquiry and presentation and exceptional piano performance, Dr. Salmon was named the recipient of the Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement for 2006.
2007 - Kevin Deas
Kevin Deas has gained international acclaim as one of America's leading basses. He is especially celebrated for his riveting portrayal of the title role in Porgy and Bess which he performed with New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, Utah, Houston, Baltimore and Montreal Symphonies, and at the Ravinia and Saratoga Festivals. During the 2009/10 season, Kevin appears in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Rochester and Buffalo philharmonics, Brahms Requiem with the Hartford Symphony, Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra and Musica Sacra, and the Verdi Requiem with the Vermont Symphony.
Highlights of Mr. Deas' recent appearances include Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under the baton of Daniel Barenboim with Filarmonica della Scala in Accra celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Ghana, Copland's Old American Songs and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Chicago Symphony, Messiah with the Cleveland Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic and Handel & Haydn Society, an opening performance at the Newport Jazz Festival with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Colorado Symphony and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and performances of Brubeck's To Hope! in Salzburg and Vienna. He has also recently performed Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with the Chicago Symphony, Dave Brubeck's To Hope in Salzburg and Vienna, Brubeck's The Gates of Justice at the Brubeck Festival 2004, and also that year opened the Newport Jazz Festival with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. In addition to Brubeck's To Hope! A Celebration and Gates of Justice, his Brubeck repertory includes the Easter oratorio Beloved Son, Light in the Wilderness, Voice of the Holy Spirit, and Earth Is Our Mother. Mr. Deas has recently recorded for several labels including Die Meistersinger with the Chicago Symphony under the baton of the late Sir Georg Solti, and Varese's Ecutorial with the ASKO Ensemble, both on Decca/London. Other releases include Bach's B Minor Mass and Handel's Acis & Galatea on Vox Classics, and Dave Brubeck's To Hope! With the Cathedral Choral Society on the Telarc label.
For his commitment to and the advancement of the music and ideas of Dave Brubeck through more than two decades of brilliant vocal performance, Kevin Deas was the recipient of the 2007 Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement.
2008 - Penny Von Eschen
Dr. Penny Von Eschen is Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan. Her fields of study are African Americans and the politics of culture with a particular focus on transnational cultural and political dynamics, and race, gender, and empire the political culture of Unites States imperialism. She is author of "Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz, Race and Empire During the Cold War," and "Race Against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937-1957." She is the winner of the 1998 Stuart L. Bernath book prize of Historians of Foreign Relations, and the Myers Outstanding Book Award, of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America. Dr. Von Eschen's other publications include: "Challenging Cold War Habits: African Americans and U.S. Foreign Policy", in Diplomatic History, "Who's the Real Ambassador? Exposing Cold War Racial Ideology," "Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism," and "The Real Ambassadors," in Uptown Conversations. She is currently working on a transnational history of Cold War nostalgia. She co-curated the photography exhibition, Jam Sessions: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World with Curtis Sandberg, Vice-President for the Arts at Meridian International Foundation in Washington D.C. The exhibit opened in April 2008 in Washington D.C. and is traveling nationally and internationally.
For her commitment to and advancement of the music and ideas of Dave Brubeck through her many years of brilliant scholarship, Dr. Von Eschen was the recipient of the 2008 Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement.
2009 - Donald V. DeRosa
Dr. Donald V. DeRosa became president of University of the Pacific in 1995. He was only the fifth president to hold office since the University moved to Stockton in 1924.
DeRosa has been hailed as an energetic and visionary leader who effected dramatic improvements related to strengthening academic programs, quality and selectivity of the student body, endowment growth, and fundraising. DeRosa’s successful leadership was evidenced by the outcome of a comprehensive campaign which closed in October 2007 with over $330 million raised, including a $100 million gift.
DeRosa directed a $200 million expansion and renovation of university facilities, achieved integration between schools and campuses, and presided over an increase in the University’s endowment from $63 million to over $225 million. He championed the infusion of new themes within the curriculum including the incorporation of interdisciplinary studies, ethics, and leadership. He fostered a deeper realization of Pacific’s distinctive character and values, focus on the whole student, commitment to teaching and learning, and emphasis on service to the community. Dr. DeRosa retired in June 2009 and now serves as President Emeritus.
For his commitment to and advancement of the music and ideas of Dave Brubeck through his vision, leadership, and decisive action that led to the creation of the Brubeck Institute, Donald DeRosa was the recipient of the 2009 Brubeck Institute Award for Distinguished Achievement.
