Matthew Bourne to Receive IJFO International Award

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The International Jazz Festivals Organization (IJFO) and IAJE will present the fourth annual International Jazz Award to Matthew Bourne (b. 1977, composer/piano/keyboards) during the IAJE Annual Conference in Long Beach, Calif.

Bourne is a non-conformist who is less and less interested in the mainstream approach to jazz, preferring instead to explore the world of contemporary composition and the avant-garde. He writes for all his own performance projects and his work has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3 and Late Junction programmes. He has been commissioned to write works for Bath International Music Festival, Leeds Fuse Festival and this year has a prestigious commission from the European Jazz Odyssey for the London Jazz Festival where he will write for saxophone, guitar, piano, drums, sound diffusion and electronica.

Bourne has performed as a soloist with contemporary music ensembles playing the music of Cage and Daugherty. He also is involved in live drum'n'bass projects with Metropolis, whose death metal approach to jazz knows no bounds, and for the critically acclaimed performance and recording project, The Electric Dr. M:

"In an ideal world, when the Mercury Prize judges are hunting around for next year's jazz nomination they'd start here..."

Bourne started to teach himself the piano in 1993 and began to tackle the language of Jazz in 1995. He has a bachelor's and a master's degree from Leeds College of Music and is currently undertaking a Ph.D in performance at the University of Leeds. He has a passion for the work of British Jazz musicians; particularly from the 1970s and figures such as John Surman, Mike Osborne, Mike Taylor and Mike Westbrook remain constant sources of inspiration. Bourne is the recipient of many prizes including the Perrier Jazz Musician of the Year Award in 2001 and the 2002 Innovator prize at the BBC Radio Jazz Awards.

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