Juilliard Alums Receive the 2009 Martin E. Segal Awards from Lincoln Center

Saxophonist Erica vonKleist and Community Arts Activist Mauricio Tafur Salgado Receive $7,500 Each for Exceptional Achievement

The 2009 Martin E. Segal Awards were presented to saxophonist Erica vonKleist and youth development/community arts activist Mauricio Tafur Salgado at a luncheon at Lincoln Center's Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse on Tuesday, March 10.  Each winner received $7,500-a cash award increased by $2,500 last year-to be used for future study and career advancement.  Now in its 23^rd year, the distinguished Award is given annually to two rising young artists in recognition of outstanding achievement. Lincoln Center Chairman Frank A. Bennack, Jr. and President Reynold Levy presided over the event.  Martin Segal, the namesake of the Award, also participated in the ceremony. 

On a rotating basis since the inception of the prize, two of Lincoln Center's twelve resident arts constituents are asked to nominate an artist or ensemble associated with their organization to receive the Martin E. Segal Award.  This year's winners were selected by Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Juilliard School. 

The Martin E. Segal Awards were established by Lincoln Center's Board of Directors and a group of Mr. Segal's friends and colleagues when he retired as Lincoln Center Chairman in 1986. The Awards mark Mr. Segal's demonstrated history of leadership and commitment to supporting and developing the careers of up-and-coming artists.  

Twenty-six year-old saxophonist Erica vonKleist has already performed with such major artists as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the Grammy-nominated Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra as well.  Her current activities include a series of workshops beginning this week at multiple New York City public schools as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz in the Schools Tour program.  She is also booked for a week-long engagement at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York City April 7-11.

An active composer, Erica's work was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) for its Songs of Romance concert in March 2008, and has been commissioned by the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and The Juilliard School as well.  Her work was also performed at the opening of Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has aired on NPR.  Erica won her second ASCAPLUS Award-an ASCAP program that provides cash and recognition to active composers in the early stages of their career-in 2008-2009.  She is also the recipient of a 2005-2006 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award, granted to encourage talented young jazz composers under the age of 30. 

Erica studied at Manhattan School of Music, and was subsequently accepted into the first class of Juilliard's Jazz Studies program under full scholarship in 2000.  She became a member of JALC's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill while still a student, graduating in 2004 with The Juilliard School's first Bachelor of Music Degree in Jazz.   In addition to touring internationally with that ensemble while a member, Erica performed with the all-female jazz orchestra DIVA and released her debut CD, Project E, with her own quintet in 2006.  Renamed No Exceptions, the ensemble has upcoming engagements at New York City's Jazz Gallery and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.  As an educator, Erica has led school clinics in several countries, and given master classes and workshops throughout New York City's five boroughs with the New York Pops. In 2005, she worked with acclaimed tuba player Robert Stewart to do research for what would become JALC's Middle School Jazz Academy for New York City youth, now in its fourth year. 

Youth development and community arts activist Mauricio Tafur Salgado graduated from The Juilliard School's Drama Division in 2005.  While still in school he started ARTreach, a student organization that links Juilliard students with the community through volunteer work, benefit performances, and open forums.  The groups' ongoing outreach efforts include its Arts in Action Summer Camp in Florida, performances at Rikers Island, and post-Katrina arts and rebuilding activities in New Orleans.

Today, Mauricio is Chief Programming Officer for Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP), a group he became involved with through the encouragement of like-minded Juilliard faculty member, Mary-Mitchell Campbell.  Committed to a goal that demonstrates the power of the arts as a tool for social understanding, the organization connects artists wishing to share their talents with underserved populations of children around the world.  Mauricio now handles volunteer training, program management, and curriculum for ASTEP arts programs about HIV/AIDS education in Africa; for projects encouraging rural education and self-confidence in the "untouchable" children's boarding school of Shanit Bhavan, India; for after-school dance, drama, and music sessions in the culturally diverse communities of  Bronxville and Mount Vernon; and for the Homestead Arts Camp in Florida, which provides free dance, music, and drama workshops for the poverty-stricken Homestead area.

Mauricio's recent activities include hosting a benefit concert for ASTEP's camp in Homestead and beginning recruitment initiatives to train and place 60 volunteers in the organization's four programs.  In November 2008, he traveled to Johannesburg to run an arts intensive at Refilwe, a South African orphanage/school, and last month he co-led a seminar on Social Justice Through the Arts at Santa Clara University.  He also maintains an acting career, and has appeared Off-Broadway in La Llarona and The Crying Woman at the Beckett Theater; Love's Labour's Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.; and in fall 2008, in a Theater For Young Audiences production of Mermaids, Monsters, and the World Painted Purple at the Kennedy Center. 

Mauricio continues his connection to Juilliard, utilizing the School as a volunteer source for many of ASTEP's programs.  He also serves as a consultant for student projects, has spoken at a number of workshops, and made presentations for Developing and Empowering Leaders in the Arts (D.E.L.T.A.), the School's leadership program.