Each year we invite established professionals, subject experts, artists and creatives from across the UK to form part of the independent Jury that will select this year’s Shortlisted Artists and Fellow.
We are thrilled to share that the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2024 for Jazz Composition Jury Members are:
Soweto Kinch
Award winning alto-saxophonist and MC Soweto Kinch is one of the most exciting and versatile musicians in both the British jazz and hip hop scenes. Undoubtedly, one of the few artists in either genre with a degree in Modern History from Oxford University, he has amassed an impressive list of accolades and awards on both sides of the Atlantic – including two MOBO Awards for Best Jazz Act (2003, 2007), and Mercury Prize Nomination for Album of the Year (2003). More recently, Kinch has extended his work in music media becoming the main presenter for BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Now, fronting BBC Four documentary Jazzology (2018), and being awarded Honorary Associateship at Hertford College, Oxford (2018) and The Royal Academy of Music (2020).
Sheila Maurice-Grey
Sheila is a London based trumpet and flugelhorn player who leads renowned band Kokoroko and has featured on several projects such as Sampha, Little Simz, Yussef Dayes, Stormzy and others.
Sheila is also a visual artist and loves to paint. Her painting plays an important and central role in her solo music project where she aims to explore her musical voice as well as through her paintings provocatively question the of hyper sexualisation of black women throughout history.
Gilles Peterson
Gilles Peterson is a broadcaster, DJ and record collector who hosts a weekly Saturday afternoon show on BBC Radio 6 Music that’s one of the broadcaster’s most popular music shows, helms independent record label Brownswood Recordings, and is the founder of online radio station Worldwide FM. Gilles also hosts the Worldwide FM radio station on the GTA V computer game.
Throughout his career, Peterson has promoted the new frontiers of jazz, hip-hop, and electronic music. Starting by installing illicit transmitters and hosting shows for pirate radio station Radio Invicta, he later joined the newly-founded Jazz FM and, after that, joined the pirate-turned-legal station Kiss FM. In 1998, he was hired by BBC Radio 1, where he hosted a weekly show until his move to his current slot on BBC Radio 6 Music.
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The Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK’s most promising artists and creatives at a breakthrough moment in their careers with £10,000 unconditional Fellowships.
The Jazz Composition category Shortlist will be revealed in January 2024, and the winning Fellow receiving £10,000 will be announced at a live Award Ceremony in February 2024, with all shortlisted artists awarded £1,000.
The Jazz Composition Award is supported in partnership with the PRS Foundation
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