Presentation to be made on the Jimmy Lyons Stage, 2 pm Sunday 9/18

BOSTON, September 9, 2005 — Berklee College of Music and the Monterey Jazz Festival announced today that Frank Silva, of San Jose, California is the ninth recipient of the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship at Berklee, a major music education prize. The scholarship is named in honor of the festival's late founder, James L. (Jimmy) Lyons, who began the festival 48 years ago with jazz education at its core.

The Lyons Scholarship is awarded each year to one California music student in recognition of their outstanding talent. Because it is a full-tuition, renewable award, satisfactory academic and musical progress in each successive year will allow each Lyons Scholar to attend Berklee through graduation, entirely tuition-free. 

2005 Lyons Scholarship winner Frank Silva is a gifted tenor saxophonist, who graduated this past spring from Pioneer High School in San Jose, California. He has studied his instrument for seven years and under the tutelage of Scott Barnhill for the last four. He has also had the good fortune to study with Dan Zinn, Geri Allen, Paul Contos, Dee Spencer, and Dave Gregoric.

Frank has been selected to play in the Monterey Youth Jazz All-Star Ensemble for two years. As a member of the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Stars, he performed at the 2004 Kutchan Jazz Festival in Kutchan, Japan, as well as the Monterey Jazz Festival in Japan. He was a four-year member of the San Jose Youth Jazz All-Star ensemble, and performed at the San Jose Jazz Festival in a performance led by David Flores and featuring John Santos. He was also chosen for the San Francisco Jazz Organization Youth All-Star Band in 2004.

Frank has had the opportunity to play and study with Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, David " Fathead" Newman, Steve Turre, and Wayne Wallace. In coming to Berklee as the latest Lyons Scholar, he hopes to "take advantage of the college's innovative, creative environment and richly talented students that will allow him to communicate ideas with music in ways that he could have only imagined before."

Tim Jackson, general manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival, has said, "We are extremely proud of our Lyons Scholars and their achievements. We are happy to have a strong, longstanding relationship with Berklee, and this major award presented in honor of our founder. To see these talented young people follow their muse, through exposure to Berklee's top faculty and facilities, is an absolutely ideal result."

Auditions for the Lyons Scholarship were via submission of an audition tape to the Berklee Scholarship Committee, which selected a group of 30 young Californians for live audition in Monterey. The students selected to audition are required to file an application for admission to Berklee, which must be approved by the college in order to compete for the scholarship. Auditions were held on the weekend of April 8 & 9, 2005, during the Festival's annual Next Generation Festival for high school students, and were conducted, as always, by senior Berklee faculty who come to California exclusively for this purpose. The college also awarded several other, significant tuition scholarships at the auditions.

Monterey Jazz Festival General Manager Tim Jackson will present the ninth Lyons Scholarship to Frank Silva on the Jimmy Lyons Stage of the Monterey Jazz Festival, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, September 18, 2005. Frank Silva will sit in with the Berklee Monterey Quartet on Saturday afternoon at 5:00, in the Starbuck's Coffee House Gallery.

Press: to inquire about photo availability and usage, please e-mail us. Frank Silva of San Jose's Pioneer High School, is the recipient of the 2005 Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music. The award, named after the festival's founder, pays all tuition for four years.

Previous Lyons Scholars

Trumpeter Erik Telford of Pacific Grove was named the first Lyons Scholar in September 1996, and after a performing hiatus from the college, returned to Berklee in fall, 1999. Erik has studied privately with Wynton Marsalis, has performed with Ernie Watts (Berklee '66), Roy Hargrove (Berklee '89) and Joshua Redman, and has toured Japan, Australia and Europe. Erik completed his Berklee studies in May 2001 with a degree in Film Scoring. He currently is active in the Western New York music scene and leads his own quintet. He is also host of 'Miles Radio' www.MilesRadio.com, a weekly radio program devoted to the music of Miles Davis.

El Cerrito's Dayna Stephens, a saxophonist and composer, was the award's second recipient; he began his Berklee studies in January 1998. With a growing reputation in West Coast jazz circles, Stephens is a former member of the Berkeley High School Jazz Band, with which he toured Europe during the summer of 1998. He has attended the Stanford Jazz Workshop -- where he studied with McCoy Tyner, Harold Land, and Steve Coleman -- and the Young Musicians Program at Cal-Berkeley. Dayna was also an outstanding member of the Monterey Jazz Festival High School band program. During his Berklee years, Dayna competed for and won admission to the 2000 Henry Mancini Summer Institute in Los Angeles. Upon completing his Berklee studies in August 2001, with a degree in Music Education, Dayna was chosen for the Thelonious Monk Institute program at USC, along with five other Berklee alumni, where he studied with Terence Blanchard. After completing his studies there, he moved to New York City to pursue his muse.

Cellist Rushad Eggleston of Carmel is the third Jimmy Lyons Scholar at Berklee, where he began his studies in January 1999. With an excellent reputation in Monterey Bay Area circles as a member of the Youth Music Monterey orchestra, where he was first cello from 1994, Rushad established himself as a musician in great demand at Berklee, figuring prominently in many ensembles, including the Berklee String Orchestra, and studying cello with Assoc. Prof. Eugene Friesen, of the Paul Winter Consort. Rushad came to national prominence in 2002 as a member of the progressive bluegrass string quartet, Fiddlers Four, with Michael Doucet, Bruce Molsky, and Darol Anger. The group made an eponymous CD, toured nationally, and was nominated for a Grammy. Rushad has moved to New York, and continues to work with Darol Anger, Fiddlers 4, and a host of other projects that "need a weird cello." His own group is called Crooked Still.

Drummer Thomas Pridgen, the fourth Lyons Scholar, has already amassed an impressive list of credentials. Since beginning a recording career at age 8, he has performed on 14 gospel albums. He won the Guitar Center Drum-Off at the age of 9, and by the time he was 10 years old, Pridgen was convinced he wanted to study at Berklee. Thomas has attended the college's annual Berklee in L.A. program several times. He began his studies in Boston in January 2002, and left school to play professionally fulltime after a year and a half. He has performed with Victor Wooten and a variety of gospel groups.

Milton Fletcher, who began his Berklee studies in fall 2000, is the fifth Lyons Scholar. By the time he was 10 years old, Fletcher, who is from Seaside, was participating in the Monterey Jazz Festival's internationally respected education programs. He held the piano chair in the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All Star band for five years, traveling to Japan to perform with the group each summer. While at Berklee, Milton performed with Berklee bandmates at the Blue Note in New York, at the Jazz and Blues Co. in Carmel, and in a live radio concert on WGBH-FM in Boston. Milton graduated with a degree in Music Business/Management in spring 2003, and now resides in Riverside, CA, where he runs M'Kaddesh Christian Productions with fellow Berklee grad, drummer Deon Hairston. He has been touring the U.S. and Asia, performed at the 2004 Monterey Jazz Festival, and will record with his trio in the first half of 2006.

The sixth Lyons Scholar is James Williams of Seaside, a gifted drummer who has been active in the Monterey Jazz Festival music education programs, various gospel church bands, and the music programs of Monterey High School. In September 2001 James began his studies at Berklee, where he is a Professional Music major. While yet a student, James was chosen for Gary Burton's Generations band. With Burton he's performed at a myriad of festival and major music events around the world, including JVC Newport, SFJazz, the Blue Note clubs, and the Hollywood Bowl. James can be heard on Burton's latest Concord Jazz release, "Next Generation"

The seventh Lyons Scholar is drummer Carlin Muccular, who has been playing the instrument since he was five years old, with his earliest performances in church at the age of seven. In 1999, he received his first national exposure when he won the "Guitar Center National Drum-Off" competition at the House of Blues in Hollywood, and was named the top amateur drummer in the country. Carlin has recorded on more than a dozen gospel CD projects, and toured with the acclaimed R&B singer Ledisi.

He was the youngest-ever endorser of both Remo Drumheads and Sabian cymbals, and has studied with Cuban-American percussion legend Walfredo Reyes, Sr. At Berklee, Carlin is double majoring, in Music Production and Engineering, and Music Business/ Management. He's just recorded with gospel artist Kierra Sheard, and also just finished a recording project with Abe Laboriel Sr., Alex Acuña, and Paul Jackson Jr.

The eighth Lyons Scholarship winner is Pat Carroll, a gifted alto saxophonist, who attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California. He has been studying with Bay Area musician and teacher Dann Zinn since the 4th grade.

Pat was selected as a member of the 2003 Monterey Jazz Festival All-Star High School Big Band. Earlier that year, he was selected as lead alto for the 2003 California IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) All-State Honors Jazz Band, under the direction of saxophonist/composer Gordon Goodwin. He is also a member of the SFJAZZ All-Star High School Ensemble and performed at the 2003 Essentially Ellington High School Competition at New York's Lincoln Center. Pat was recognized for Outstanding Performance by a Public High School Student in Down Beat Magazine's 2003 Student Music Awards. He was also a member of the Brubeck Institute High School All-Stars at the 2002 and 2003 Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony.

Pat has been inspired and coached by such eminent artists as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Eddie Marshall, Dave Eshelman, Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Christian McBride, Branford Marsalis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Chris Potter. He hopes to continue studying with jazz masters at Berklee and beyond, and aspires to be a professional musician, expressing his art form around the world.He's spent his first year at Berklee studying with George Garzone, among others, and focusing on his instrument and compositions. Pat expects to record this music in fall 2005.

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.

For editorial information or digital photos, the media may contact:

Rob Hayes
Office of Public Information
(617) 747-2566 or 617-331-4424 between 9/14 and 9/19/05
rhayes@berklee.edu

Paul Fingerote
Monterey Jazz Festival
408-373-3366
paul@montereyjazzfestival.org