Winners

Sutin Benjamin

3rd prize

Benjamin Sutin is a grammy-nominated jazz, latin jazz, and klezmer violinist based in the greater NYC area. He began his career in Philadelphia, where he studied with legendary jazz violinist, John Blake Jr. He has since performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, NJPAC, Lincoln Center, The Ravinia Festival, The Apollo Theater, Birdland Jazz Club, and The Kennedy Center, and has worked with the likes of David Amram, Don Friedman, George Burton, Ronnie Burrage, Benito Gonzales, Elio Villafranca, Kelly Green, The Big Apple Circus, the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, Banda Magda, Vince Giordano, Larry Harlow, and Bobby Sanabria. As a band leader Sutin has performed to sold out crowds at venues such as the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, City Winery (NYC), Cornelia Street Cafe, and World Cafe Live. Best known for fusing his Philadelphia jazz roots with music from his Jewish heritage and with three albums under his name, his latest, “Hard Bop Hanukkah”, released on MEII Enterprises has garnered critical acclaim by the likes of Downbeat Magazine, Regina Carter and David Krakauer. Sutin graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 2015 with a BM in Jazz Violin Performance where he studied privately with jazz violinist, Sara Caswell and is currently studying klezmer fiddling from Alicia Svigals. He now is on faculty at MSM as a substitute jazz violin instructor for their Pre-College Program. Students from his own private jazz violin teaching studio have gone on to study at schools like the New England Conservatory and New York University, have won multiple scholarships and have won Runner Up and Merit Awards from the National Young Arts Foundation annual jazz competition.