CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2025 JSJA WINNERS

Posted October 6, 2025

The Board of the John Stites Jazz Artist Organization is excited to announce the 2025 John Stites Artistic Development Jazz Award winners. These awards provide funding to enhance the career opportunities of innovative, emerging jazz musicians. This is the fifth year that we have given these awards and each year it has become more challenging to choose the most deserving applicants. Nearly 50% of the 2025 applicants scored more than 80 out of 100 points. The six award winners scored more than 90 points and were awarded a record $65,000. If you are a talented jazz musician and need funding to pursue your dream project, JSJAO hopes you will consider applying for a 2026 JSJA Artistic Development award.

Miranda Agnew – Mentorship in Composition, Improvisation and Collaboration at the Intersection of Jazz and Experimental Music

Miranda Agnew plans to use her award to fund a mentorship with renowned composers and improvisers Anna Webber and Caroline Davis. She plans to hone her collaboration skills and build connections with the global jazz community while attending The International Music Creators and Collaborators Workshop and the Banff Jazz Camp Sonic Arts Program. In addition, she will study with New York City based musicians who are role models both musically and professionally and who can offer vital perspectives as her career advances.

Maxwell Bessesen – Woodwind Doubling Lessons on Soprano Sax, Flute, and Piccolo

Max Bessesen will use his award to take private lessons from jazz woodwind doublers who he admires (Sam Newsome, Ben Kono, and Dave Pietro), as well as 3 classical musicians and 2 legendary artists. His objective is to improve his overall artistry and technique on doubles while establishing relationships with jazz musicians who can provide high-level performance opportunities where doubling is expected. He will use the knowledge he acquires in his own projects and collaborations, as well as integrate this information into his lessons with students who play flute, piccolo or soprano sax.

Gustavo Cortińas Fouilloux – Composition/Arranging/Drumming Lessons

Gustavo Cortińas’ project is to pursue a year of independent study of Afro-Cuban and Jazz drumming traditions with two masters (Dan Weiss and Emilio Valdés). He also plans to attend the Drum Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles, CA as well as study composition and arranging with Norman David (Temple University). The year-long study and mentorship will enhance his ability to fuse Jazz and Latin traditions into original, socially engaged music while strengthening his impact as a performer, composer, and educator.

Braun Khan – Jazz Bass Development Through Studies with John Clayton and David Allen Moore

Braun Khan plans to use his award to study with highly respected jazz bassist and educator John Clayton. He will also intends to take lessons from Philharmonic bassist David Allen Moore. These lessons will focus on how to use a bow in a jazz context, while enhancing his overall musicianship. The training is fundamental to his next project – a series of modern jazz pieces for piano and 2 basses that highlight the versatility of the bass and employ a variety of classical bowing techniques that are underutilized in jazz composition.

Keegan Marshall– House – Herbie Nichols Research Project

Keegan Marshall-House will use his award to continue his studies of the compositional family that includes Herbie Nichols, Bud Powell, Monk and others. He intends to apply what he learns to poetry in a way that explores form and orchestration. The award will allow him to take lessons from people that he feels are in the school of “compositional” piano playing such as Sullivan Fortner, Jason Moran, and others. He will also travel to the Library of Congress to study handwritten manuscripts. Cumulatively, the result will be a large personal performance repertoire of original music.

Andrew Rathbun – Jazz Saxophone Concerto – Consultations and Lessons

Andrew Rathbun plans to create a new large ensemble work and wants to embark on a series of consultations/lessons with two musicians/teachers – Quinsin Nachoff and Ericsson Hatfield. He will continue to study counterpoint/canon remotely with Ericsson Hatfield. Both mentors are gifted musicians/teachers and are expected to provide invaluable feedback on the new piece. The new piece will be a “chamber jazz” piece of mixed winds (7 brass and 5 woodwinds), string quartet, percussion, piano, bass and drum set. This instrumentation is expected to provide a large improvisational framework within an ensemble that can both act as a chamber ensemble and a full-fledged jazz group.

The applications were scored by an independent Review Committee composed of professional jazz musicians with national and international experience. JSJA has awarded nearly $450,000 in the last 5 years. The 2026 Award cycle begins on February 15. JSJA plans to award an additional $50,000 to another group of outstanding applicants in September 2026. Information on the 2026 award timeline will be available on our website in early February. If you have questions, please submit them using the Contact form on the website. The Board of the JSJAO thanks all the 2025 applicants for their participation. We encourage anyone with an idea that supports professional exceptionalism in jazz music to apply.

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