Korean-American Jazz Prodigy Wins 4 Awards
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Korean-American jazz saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly, 16, won four awards from a major American jazz magazine, her management agency announced Thursday.
At Downbeat magazine's 2008 Downbeat Student Music Awards, Kelly won prizes for Jazz Soloist, Jazz Vocalist, Extended Composition and Arrangement. In 2006, she had also won four honors from Downbeat, including Pop, rock and blues soloist, Original Composition and Jazz Vocalist.
The young musician started composing her own music at age seven, mastered the saxophone by 10 and released her first album when she turned 12. She sings and composes and plays other instruments including the flute, clarinet, bass and drums.
Hailed as the next big thing in jazz, Kelly has received acclaim from jazz legends like Phil Woods and took the stage with Lee Konitz. In February she performed with the Gibson/Baldwin Jazz Ensemble at the Grammy Awards After Party.
``My whole day is just filled with music, singing, composing or what I feel like doing. I try to get to all of it,'' Kelly said in a previous Korea Times interview. ``I feel like the more and more I experiment with music I'm beginning to find my sound,'' she said.
Kelly celebrated her sweet 16th birthday Thursday with a performance at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, held in the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The youngest student to ever complete the four-year Jazz Studies Certification Program at New England Conservatory Prep School, Kelly will be leaving high school early to enroll in the Berklee College of Music in the fall, with a full scholarship.