The Eastman New Jazz Ensemble under Dave Rivello and Eastman School of Music students Theresa Chen, George Darrah, and Jon Rarick have received DownBeat honors in the magazine’s 40th annual Student Awards competition.

The Eastman New Jazz Ensemble was recognized in the Outstanding College Performance Large Jazz Ensemble category for its March 2, 2016, concert in which the musicians performed Bob Brookmeyers’s unreleased work Running in Place/Verticals and an unrecorded piece by Bill Holman titled The Big Izzy. Chen won the award for Outstanding Original Composition for Small Ensemble. Her work, Ilha Formosa (“Beautiful Island”), written for a piano trio, tenor and soprano saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and string quartet. Chen is currently a second-year DMA student in jazz piano performance. Darrah, a jazz composition major who will receive his master’s degree this month, won Outstanding Arrangement for Too Close for Comfort. Rarick was recognized for Outstanding Arrangement for his arrangement of J. Russell Robinson’s Portrait of Jennie, the title song for a movie of the same name. Rarick, a second year master’s degree student in jazz writing who is graduating this month, is from Grayslake, Ill.

The Student Music Awards were announced in the June issue of DownBeat. The issue was mailed April 25 (I have mine... although this info is from ) and will be on newsstands on May 16.