Lower Merion High School Junior Wins Prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Composition Contest

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Leo Steinriede, a Bala Cynwyd native, is the winner of the Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition and Arranging Contest. Image via Donald D. Groff and Patch.

Leo Steinriede, a Bala Cynwyd native, is the winner of the prestigious Jazz at Lincoln Center’s 8th Annual Essentially Ellington Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition and Arranging Contest, writes Max Bennett for the Patch.

The Lower Merion High School junior’s composition was chosen out of 26 entries submitted by student composers from around the nation.

Called “The Rhetorical Situation,” the composition was written for a big band consisting of five saxophones, four trumpets, and three trombones, along with a rhythm section of guitar, piano, bass, and drums.

The seventeen-year-old Steinriede conducted the piece in public for the first time on February 1 at the Composers League of Philadelphia’s Jazz Composers Showcase at the Painted Bride in Old City.

In addition to winning the cash prize, the young composer will have his composition recorded by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

He will also receive composition lessons with Ted Nash, a GRAMMY award-winning musician, and a trip to New York where he will take part in the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival in May.

Read more about Leo Steinriede at the Patch by clicking here.

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