Two young musicians who are due to appear at Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival this month have won big in the annual awards given to students on the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Bassist Ewan Hastie receives the Mark McKergow Prize for Jazz Improvisation and shares the Alan McAulay Award for group work with three other students, including drummer Chun-Wei Kang. Kang also won the George Duncan Prize for Jazz Composition.
Hastie and Kang both play in Edinburgh-born pianist Ben Shankland’s trio, which appears at the Jazz Bar on Monday 17th July, and Kang leads his own project, with Hastie on bass, at the Chambers Street venue the following evening.
Hastie, who was born in Leith and grew up in Kirkcaldy, has already enjoyed success in the past year, winning the BBC Young Jazz Musician title in a UK-wide competition in November. He is also due to appear with drummer Richard Glassby’s group, again at the Jazz Bar, on Friday 21 July.
“Ewan and Chun-Wei are deserving winners of these awards,” says saxophonist Tommy Smith, who founded the jazz course at the RCS in 2009.
“The prizes, which come with some money to help with their careers, are recognition for the hard work they have put into their studies, and as they prepare to go out into the professional world of jazz, their dedication will stand them in good stead.”
