Matana Roberts Named Among 2014 Herb Alpert Award Winners
Matana Roberts
Photo by Jason Fulford
Composer and saxophonist Matana Roberts has been named one of the five 2014 recipients of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts which recognize mid–career, risk–taking artists in dance, film/video, music, theatre, and visual arts. The $75,000 prize per artist is unique among established arts awards in recognizing the past performance and future promise of experimental artists. Roberts was chosen as the winner in music for her “charismatic, powerful renderings of sound.”
Celebrating 20 years, 100 awardees, and over $6 million in grants, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts has recognized numerous artists who have gone on to extraordinary careers, including past music winners Alex Mincek, Myra Melford, Nicole Mitchell, Lukas Ligeti, John King, Derek Bermel, Mark Feldman, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, David Dunn, Miya Masaoka, Vijay Iyer, Laetitia Sonami, Zhou Long, Steve Coleman, George Lewis, Pamela Z, Chen Yi, Anne LeBaron, and James Carter.
On May 9, the five 2014 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts recipients will receive their awards at a private celebratory luncheon at the Herb Alpert Foundation in Santa Monica. Herb Alpert and his wife Lani Hall Alpert will be present, along with the panel judges and noted supporters of the arts.
The panel for the 2014 Herb Alpert Award in music included Argeo Ascani (curator, music, EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY), Kate Dumbleton (faculty, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Festival Director, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Chicago, IL), and Miya Masaoka (musician, composer, sound artist, 2004 Herb Alpert Award winner in Music, New York, NY).
(from the press release)