meet the
2024 YCS selectees
“Alalazoo“
LARGE INSTRUMENTAL GROUP
ABOUT SUMMER:
Summer Camargo, 21, a trumpet student at The Juilliard School and Jerome Greene Fellowship recipient, is entering her fifth year of college majoring in Jazz Studies. Summer most recently joined Lenny Pickett and The Saturday Night Live House Band on NBC, recorded her debut album under Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Blue Engine, won first place in the International Trumpet Guild’s Ryan Anthony Trumpet Memorial Competition, subbed for Wynton Marsalis on the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s 2022 Big Band Holidays Tour, and has been performing with her sextet in prestigious venues in NYC such as Dizzy’s and Birdland. Summer is a proud Conn Selmer/Bach artist.
“It Comes in Waves“
SMALL INSTRUMENTAL GROUP
ABOUT DENIN:
Guitarist, composer and educator Dr. Denin Slage-Koch, born and raised in Richland, WA, holds degrees from the University of Northern Colorado, Eastman School of Music, and Whitworth University. He currently serves as a full-time faculty member at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, where he teaches jazz guitar, composition lessons, and other jazz classes. He has worked as a guitarist or composer with artists including Ryan Keberle, Shane Endsley, Carmen Bradford, Greg Tardy, Jon Hamar, Keith Brown, the Colorado Symphony, the Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Melissa Aldana, and others. His other accomplishments include a Herb Alpert Young Composer’s Award, a Pathways to Jazz Grant, three releases as a leader, a book published by Mel Bay Publishing, research presentations at JEN and an article published in Jazz Research Journal, and more. His most recent release, “It Comes in Waves,” features Ryan Keberle and Shane Endsley and highlights Slage-Koch’s personal compositional style.
“Ghost Train“
VOCAL SOLO w/ BIG BAND
ABOUT SYLVIA:
Originally from Dublin, California, Sylvia Khouri is a second semester trumpet player at the Berklee College of Music studying Jazz Composition and Performance with a minor in Screen Scoring.
Sylvia started her composition journey playing piano and writing literature. Growing up she wanted to be a writer and would compose pieces on piano to go along with the plots and characters in her novels. Once she shifted her focus to playing trumpet, she began composing pieces for brass groups and later moved to composing for big band.
At Berklee, Sylvia has studied arranging with Manuel Kaufmann and Ayn Inserto. Outside of college classes, Sylvia co-runs a big band called the Khouri/White Collective, playing an array of arrangements and original compositions from straight ahead jazz to contemporary fusion. The band experiments with non-traditional instrumentation, such as including string quartet, Guzheng, and synthesizer. Together with her co-bandleader, Tyler White, she has written and recorded her first big band E.P released in 2023. Outside of big band writing, she also wrote for her small jazz ensemble led by Luis Perdomo at Berklee.
“The Lighthouse”
SMALL INSTRUMENTAL GROUP
ABOUT THOMAS:
Thomas Wandborg is a composer and guitarist from Northern Denmark. From touring with jazz groups across Denmark, Sweden, Åland, Finland, Greenland, and Germany to playing in the award-winning indie rock band Én Mand Stærk, he makes music that reflects the diverse background and direction of his career. The foundation of his musical style draws substantially from Nordic heritage and the simple beauty of Nordic songs and landscapes. With a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, he is currently studying Jazz Composition and Guitar Performance
previous ycs selcetees
- Joseph Borsellino, New England Conservatory of Music –
“THE LALIBALOTCH SINGS AT DAWN”
- Dava Giustizia, Berklee College of Music – “INSINCERE”
- Zhengtao Pan, Berklee College of Music – “FLAMENCO A MUÑECO DE NIEVE”
Alex Shanafelt, Indianapolis, IN – “UNEQUIVOCALLY”
- Alexandra Sjobeck, Eagle, ID – “BLUE LIGHT”
- Kevin Zapata, University of Miami Frost School of Music – “WANDERING”
- Clint Bleil – Pittsburg, PA – “Ubiquitous Lumineferous”
- Kate Hamann – Frost School of Music – “Her Colors”
- Stephen Harvey – Salisbury, MD – “Projectile Dysfunction”
- Josh Karas – Vanderbilt University – “Fantasy in C Minor”
- Skylar Tang – San Francisco Bay Area – “What? Why?”
- Gary Wang – Bejing, China – “Bill’s Board”
- Michael Clement – University of North Texas – “Evading Karmacities”
- Hatsune Hirakura – Berklee College of Music – “Dear M”
- Lola Miller-Henline – San Francisco Conservatory of Music – “Mind of Its Own”
- Katelyn Vincent – Phoenix, AZ – “Unfinished Business”
- Nathan Poehlke, University of Oregon — “Feeling Sleepy”
- Maya Keren, Princeton University – “Wyndmoor”
- Phillip Ryan Goss, New England Conservatory – “Untitled No. 1”
- Annie Booth, University of Colorado – “Jolly Beach”
- Gabriel Severn, Loyalsock Township High School – “Canção Para Fina”
- Andrew Saliba, San Diego – “Silent Minority”
- Eri Chichibu, Berklee College of Music – “The Sea – Seven Years Voyage”
- HONORABLE MENTION
- Paulo Santos, University of Texas Austin – “Twisted Voyage”
- John Sturino, New York, New York – “Tip City”
- Yoko Suzuki, Berklee College of Music – “Cat Tricks”
- Bryann Kennard, University of Miami – “Let The Wild Rumpus Start”
- Martina Liviero, Berklee College of Music – “Pasajeros”
- Brian Martin, University of Massachussetts – “Lookin’ Forward”
- Sam Ross, University of Michigan – “Portuguese Bend”
- Jameson Scriver, Indiana University – “The Good Fight”
- Elliot Turner, University of Northern Colorado – “What Are You?”
- Tracy Yang, Berklee College of Music – “Yes and No”
- HONORABLE MENTION Ethan Moffitt, University of Southern California – “Step by Step”
- Lucas Fonseca, Berklee College of Music – “Colloquio”
- Takumi Kakimoto, Berklee College of Music – “Find Phrygiayn”
- Kyle Myers, University of North Texas – “Tomorrow Morning”
- Zachary Rich, University of Northern Colorado – “Community”
- David Rogers, Vanderbilt University – “Sivan”
- Gregory Weis, University of Northern Colorado – “Liquid Descent”
- Aida Demoya, Berklee College of Music – “TC For Leo”
- Anna Jelkéus, University of North Texas – “Above”
- Heui Lam, Berklee College of Music – “The Unknown Bell”
- Tobias Meissl, Berklee College of Music – “Deep Tree Fission”
- Chang Su, University of Northern Colorado – “Forbidden City Garden”
- Casio Vianna, University of Northern Colorado – “For The Rise Of A New Day”
- Mike Conrad, University of Northern Colorado – “Gerry’s Timepiece”
- Andrew D. Herring, Shenandoah University – “27”
- Nacho González Nappa, Berklee College of Music – “Candombe Juno”
- Matt Shugert, Indiana University – “Madeline”
- Tom Amend, University of Northern Colorado – “What Do You Say?”
- Keith Karns, University of North Texas- “The House At The End Of High Street”
- Chase Morrin, Harvard/NEC – “Three Brahmin”
- Drew Zaremba, University of North Texas – “Blues For Gabe”
- Lucas Apostleris, University of Massachusetts – “September Again”
- Enrico Bergamini, Berklee College of Music – “Convergence”
- Raphael DeLima, Frost School of Music (University of Miami) – “Quebra Cabeças”
- C. Tyler Dennis, San Francisco, California – “What Would Thad Do?”
- Aaron Hedenstrom, University of North Texas – “Honeybee”
- Carter Brodkorb, Toronto, Canada
- Jose Gurria, USC
- Laila Smith, San Jose, California
- Dave Stamps, University of Nebraska-Lincoln2012 Young Composer Showcase Selectees
- Socrates Garcia, University of Northern Colorado
- Brett McDonald, Rutgers University
- Emily Merrell, University of North Texas
- Tyler Mire, University of North Texas
- Chase Morrin, Harvard University/New England Conservatory
- Kate Skinner, University of Northern Colorado
