PULLMAN, Wash. – Greg Yasinitsky, WSU Regents Professor and director of the university’s School of Music, has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his Jazz Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
The composition was premiered in January 2017 by the Baton Rouge Symphony, conducted by Timothy Muffitt with soloist Willis Delony, the Virginia Martin Howard Professor of Piano and professor of jazz studies at Louisiana State University. Both Muffitt and Delony submitted the nomination. Muffitt noted, the Concerto “is a unique work in the American orchestral canon and most deserving of recognition.”
Yasinitsky currently is creating a wind ensemble orchestration of the Concerto.
Recent commissions for Yasinitsky include “Partial Eclipse” for the 25th anniversary of the Las Vegas Academy and his arrangement of “Creepin’” for an upcoming recording by the Colorado Repertory Jazz Orchestra featuring the music of Stevie Wonder. Active commissions include a new work for saxophone and piano for Vanessa Sielert, director of the Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho a new piece for jazz band to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Jazz Education Network, the most important academic organization for jazz.
Contact:
Greg Yasinitsky, WSU Regents Professor and director of WSU’s School of Music, 509-335-4244, yasinits@wsu.edu
