Focusyear Band 22, coached by Cuong Vu

Cuong Vu is considered by jazz critics to be one of the leaders of a new generation of innovative musicians. A unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing to a variety of artists including Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson and David Bowie. As a teenager, Cuong's intense dedication and love of music led him to earn a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies with honors in Performance. After graduating from Boston, he moved to New York in 1994 and began his career actively leading various groups and touring extensively throughout the world. As a bandleader, Cuong has released eight recordings, each making it onto critics' lists of the 10 best recordings of that year and receiving rave reviews from notable publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper "s, the Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, JazzTimes and Downbeat. Each of his records shows how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory as a trumpeter, blurring all stylistic boundaries while developing his own compositional aesthetic and sound world. As a member of the Pat Metheny Group, Vu was awarded two Grammys for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. He was also recognized as one of the 50 best jazz artists in the article "The New Masters" by the British magazine "Classic CD" and named the best international jazz artist by the "Italian Jazz Critics" Society. Amazon listed "Vus Come Play With Me" on their list of the "100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time. Each of his recordings as a leader has been included in the Best Of/Top Ten of the year by respected jazz critics. Recently, Cuong received the European Echo Jazz 2017 Award, International Instrumentalist, for his work on the recording "Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny." Currently a professor and chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington, Cuong is also a "Yamaha Performing Artist" playing the Yamaha Custom YTR8310Z trumpet. Admission: 15/10 Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.