Rebecca Hennessy Wins the 2018 Emerging Jazz Artist Award

Toronto Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Rebecca Hennessy is the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Jazz Artist Award, a $10,000 cash prize.

TORONTO, June 25, 2018 – Toronto Arts Foundation is pleased to announce that Rebecca Hennessy is the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Jazz Artist Award, a $10,000 cash prize. The award was first established in 2014 through the generous donation of Cheryl and Manuel Buchwald, and is intended to support the pre-production, production, and/or recording of original music composed by the recipient.

Rebecca Hennessy is a highly sought-after Toronto-based trumpeter, composer and bandleader. As a leader and co-leader, Rebecca has released eight albums and has toured Mexico, Panama, Sri Lanka, Europe, USA and in Canada. In 2016, her FOG Brass Band was nominated for both the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Grand Prix de Jazz and the Halifax Jazz Festival’s Stingray Rising Star Award. Her most recent CD, Two Calls was rated best Canadian jazz albums of 2017 by Ottawa Citizen.

Hennessy was selected by a peer jury, who commended her for her creative, authentic and quirky compositions, noting that there is a lot of depth and personality to her work. She is an excellent trumpet player, they said; “She has a confidence and comfort level that not a lot of other emerging jazz artists have.”

The award presentation took place this past weekend, Saturday June 23 at the TD Toronto Jazz Festival on the OLG Stage. Following the recipient announcement, audiences enjoyed a free concert by last year’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award recipient, Larnell Lewis.