Doris Duke Charitable Foundation awards to eight jazz musicians

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced the 21 recipients of its fifth annual Doris Duke Artists Awards. The awards are bestowed on the artists in recognition of their “creative vitality and ongoing contributions to the fields of dance, jazz and theater.”

This year, the recipients include eight jazz artists. They are trumpeters Dave Douglas and Wadada Leo Smith, pianists Fred Hersch, Wayne Horovitz and Jason Moran, saxophonist and clarinetist Matana Roberts, vocalist and instrumentalist Jen Shyu and saxophonist and flautist Henry Threadgill.

“Given the health struggles that I’ve experienced over the years, it’s remarkable that I’m alive,” said Fred Hersch. “I feel like I’m still getting better at what I do, and that keeps me going. At heart, the thing I love to do is play, but I know that this award is going to open some doors, personally and professionally, in ways I can’t even begin to predict.”

“To receive the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award is the highest honor,” said Wadada Leo Smith. “It celebrates my achievements as a creative composer and performer in an art form that transcends boundaries. With the support of the Doris Duke Foundation, I now have the unique opportunity to develop a fresh connection to my art and to my community.”

Awardees will each receive $275,000 in flexible, multi-year funding as well as financial and legal counseling, professional development activities and peer-to-peer learning opportunities provided by Creative Capital, the Dorus Duke Charitable Foundation’s primary partner in the awards. With the 2016 class, the Foundation has awarded approximately $27.7 million to 101 artists through the Doris Duke Artist Awards.

DORIS DUKE PERFORMING ARTIST AWARDS:

The Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards was a ten-year program undertaken by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, in partnership with Creative Capital, to empower, invest in and celebrate artists by offering flexible, multi-year funding as a response to financial and funding challenges both unique to the performing arts and to each grantee. Launched in 2011, the Awards program supported individual artists in contemporary dance, theatre, jazz and related interdisciplinary work.

Grants were not tied to any specific project but were intended as deepened investments in the artists’ personal and professional development and future work. Through Creative Capital, the awardees also received the opportunity to take part in professional development activities, financial and legal counseling, and grantee gatherings—all designed to help them maximize the use of their grants.

The Awards program has offered two tiers of support: The Doris Duke Artist Awards and the Doris Duke Impact Awards. Through the Doris Duke Artist Awards, 101 artists received $275,000 each, totaling $27.7 million. In addition, 40 artists received $80,000 each through the Doris Duke Impact Awards.

The Awards program is part of the larger Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative—a commitment on the part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to recognize the potential of individual artists and insure their future viability, in the core fields of the performing arts supported by Doris Duke during her lifetime. Through the Performing Artists Initiative, the foundation’s Building Demand for the Arts program also supports at least 50 partnerships between artists and dance companies, theaters, presenting organizations, and/or select service organizations. Creative Capital maintains administrative, fiscal, and legal oversight of the Awards program. The Building Demand component of the Initiative is administered by the Arts Program at Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Ultimately, the Awards program reflected the pioneering spirit and generosity of Doris Duke, who frequently invested in talent or artistic genres, such as jazz, certain forms of modern dance, and traditional Islamic art forms, long before others in the United States recognized the value of such work.

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