George Wein, world-renowned founder and producer of
the Newport Jazz Festival®, Newport Folk Festival®, New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival® and numerous other music events, will receive The Recording
Academy® Trustees Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in areas
other than performance. The award will be presented at a special
invitation-only ceremony on Saturday, February 7, 2015 and acknowledged during
the 57th Annual GRAMMY® Awards, which will be broadcast live on Sunday,
February 8, at 8:00 pm ET on the CBS Television Network.
Wein
joins iconic pop music producer Richard Perry (Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand,
Carly Simon, Ringo Starr) and the stellar song-writing duo of Barry Mann &
Cynthia Weil ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," "On
Broadway," "Just Once") as 2015 Trustees Award recipients.
"I
am thrilled to receive this recognition for my life's work, and I am grateful
that The Recording Academy selected me to join this year's remarkable
recipients," said Wein. "It is also an honor to celebrate the same
award that has been presented to outstanding music leaders, and friends,
including Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Allen
Toussaint, Marian McPartland, Norman Granz, John Hammond and countless others."
Over the
years, this Special Merit Award has been bestowed upon Stephen Sondheim, Quincy
Jones, Carole King, Frank Sinatra, Clive Davis, Cole Porter, Dick Clark, Johnny
Mercer, George and Ira Gershwin, Don Cornelius, Steve Jobs,
Holland/Dozier/Holland, The Beatles, Rudy Van Gelder, Bruce Lundvall, Burt
Bacharach & Hal David, Thomas A. Dorsey and other individuals who have made
significant contributions to the field of recording.
"This
year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific
contributions to our culture and history," said Recording Academy
President/CEO Neil Portnow. "It is an honor and a privilege to recognize
such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of
work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come."
George
Wein, chairman of the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., is considered to be
as much a legend as his festivals. He
has spearheaded hundreds of music events since 1954 when he produced the first
Newport Jazz Festival® - an event which started the festival era. Five years
later, Wein and folk icon Pete Seeger founded the Newport Folk Festival®. In
1970, Wein founded the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. On December 11, Wein celebrated the opening of
the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, which is the education
and community arm of the New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Foundation.
He
pioneered the idea of sponsor association with music events, beginning with The
Schlitz Salute to Jazz and the Kool Jazz Festival. His company went on to produce
events for JVC, Mellon Bank, Verizon, Essence, Ben & Jerry's, CareFusion,
Natixis Global Asset Management and others.
As he
approaches his 90th birthday, Wein has as much creative fuel as he did when he
started the Newport festivals and advanced the concept of live music. He
created the Newport Festivals Foundation in 2010 to continue the legacies of
the famed Jazz and Folk festivals, and continues to lead a team of seasoned
professionals to produce both events every summer.
A result
of his diverse contributions to jazz and world culture, Wein has been honored
by heads of state, educational institutions and leading publications. He is an NEA Jazz Master (Jazz Advocate), and
in 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhode Island
Council for the Humanities and New Englander of the Year from the New England
Council. In 2012 Wein was given the APAP Award of Merit for Achievement in
Performing Arts. In addition, honors and awards have been bestowed upon him by
Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, AARP, the Studio Museum in Harlem and
the French Legion d'Honneur. Wein is a lifetime Honorary Trustee of Carnegie
Hall and a member of the Board of Trustees at Jazz @ Lincoln Center.
In
addition to his work as a producer, George Wein is an accomplished jazz
pianist, whose group, Newport All-Stars has toured around the world and has
featured some of the greatest musicians in the history of jazz.
Wein's
autobiography, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music (Da Capo Press), which
chronicles his life in jazz, was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association
as 2004's best book about jazz. In addition to his life in jazz, Mr. Wein has a
long history of involvement with philanthropy and the arts, including the
establishment of the Joyce and George Wein Chair of African American Studies at
Boston University, the Alexander Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Simmons
College and an annual artist prize given through the Studio Museum in Harlem in
honor of his late wife, Joyce Alexander Wein.
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