John Sturm Wins The Inaugural Herb Pomeroy Award

By Drew ChandlerJune 12th, 2011Student Features

Berklee College of Music is pleased to introduce the First Annual Herb Pomeroy Jazz Composition/Arranging Contest winner, John Sturm.

The winning piece will be performed by the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra (under direction of Greg Hopkins) at the 43rd High School Jazz Festival on March 5, 2011. The contest was limited to high school students enrolled in grades, 9, 10, 11, or 12.

John Sturm, the inaugural Herb Pomeroy Award winner, is from Princeton, NJ. John is a senior at Princeton High School. His winning piece is entitled Autumn Lament, a ballad that features the lead trombone. John’s hobbies include jazz piano, composition, ultimate frisbee, math, and philosophy. His music teachers include Neal Kirkwood, Laurie Altmun and Susanne Lehrer. He is planning on majoring in math and minoring in music in college. John Sturm’s winning piece will be performed by the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra (under the direction of Greg Hopkins) at the High School Jazz Festival on March 5th at 2:00 p.m in the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Second Level of the Hynes Convention Center.

In addition John Sturm will receive a full scholarship to the Berklee 5-week Summer Performance Program. The judges declined to indicate a runner up. The Poweroy Award is sponsored by Berklee College of Music, Jazz Composition Department, Professional Writing Division.

About Herb Pomeroy

Herb Pomeroy was a Berklee Faculty legend and jazz great. A graduate of the class of ’52, his work as a mentor and musician helped make Berklee into the world’s leading institute of contemporary music.

He joined the Berklee faculty as a full-time teacher in 1955 and developed several courses that eventually cemented his reputation as one of jazz’s greatest teachers. Pomeroy’s appreciation for and endless study of Duke Ellington’s music informed much of his classroom work and helped spawn scores of talented musicians, including producer Arif Mardin, The Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, composer-arrangers Alan Broadbent and Rob Mounsey, vibraphonist Gary Burton, keyboardist Joe Zawinul, bassist Abe Laboriel Sr., film composers Mike Gibbs and Alan Silvestri, and many others.

Herb released many CDs as a leader and co-leader and appeared on dozens of recordings as a sideman, including sessions with Charlie Parker and Charlie Mariano. He began playing professionally in high school and went on the road in the early 1950s with bands led by Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, and Serge Chaloff.