Congratulations to our pal Alex Ross, one of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows. There were three other music-related “Genius Grants,” as they’re more commonly called, for 2008:
Violinist Leila Josefowicz, instrument maker and composer Walter Kitundu, and saxophonist Miguel Zenón.
According to the MacArthur Foundation website “There are three criteria for selection of Fellows: exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” Prospective fellows are nominated anonymously by a group of Nominators, and are selected by an anonymous Selection Committee.
Right, I only meant as similarly inspired choice.
Lisa,
Corey Harris isn’t generally considered a jazz musician. I was focusing specifically about jazz musicians who have gotten MacArthurs.
I totally agree. But couldn’t you say the same things about last year’s selection of Corey Harris?
I put up a post on the significance of Zenón’s selection.