Report To The Community 2021

Celebrating “The Divine One”: (left to right)
Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition
contestants Viktorija Gečytė, Andrea Miller,
Arta Jēkabsone, April May Webb, and winner
G. Thomas Allen with Steve Williams, Sheila Jordan,
Christian McBride, John Pizzarelli, Jazzmeia Horn
and Renee Rosnes.
“I feel blessed to be here, not just
because this is the home of jazz
and of Sarah, but also because only
days before my trip here, the border
reopened! Whew! Which makes this
competition truly international.”
in a considerably lower range —
and closed out his entry with
a rendition of “Misty,” one of
Vaughan’s favored tunes,
back up in his higher voice.
The audience gave Allen a
standing ovation for that
performance, the only such
accolade of the evening.
Allen, who now serves as
a voice instructor at the
Chicago High School for the
Arts and on the faculty of
Columbia College Chicago
— Viktorija Gečytė
in addition to performing,
took home a $5,000 prize.
Allen took top honors in a field
of five young singers from across
the country, including locals
April May Webb (from Edison),
who took second place, and
Arta Jēkabsone (Jersey City),
who took third place honors.
Viktorija Gečytė, a Lithuanian
singer now based in Paris,
and Andrea Miller of
Costa Mesa, CA, rounded
out the competition.
“You can’t imagine how blessed
I feel to be here,” Gečytė
enthused as she took to the
stage, “not just because this
is the home of jazz and of
Sarah, but also because only
days before my trip here, the
border reopened! Whew! Which
makes this competition truly
international. Cheers to that!”
In fact, hundreds of hopefuls
from more than 25 countries
around the globe entered the
contest this year, vying for a
shot at the staged finals.
A panel of industry
heavyweights served as
judges of the competition,
including former Sassy Awards
champion Jazzmeia Horn,
vocalist and NEA Jazz Master
Sheila Jordan, guitarist and
singer John Pizzarelli, pianist
and bandleader Renee
Rosnes and Steven Williams,
President and CEO of Newark’s
jazz station, WBGO. •
during COVID, a virtual competition
“The heart of our music is
improvisation. And, boy, haven’t
we had to improvise the last
15 months?” said Gary Walker,
WBGO morning announcer
and music director, as he
kicked off the ninth annual
Sarah Vaughan International
Jazz Vocal Competition in June,
after the event was postponed
from its expected November
2020 date by the pandemic.
It was an unusual iteration
of the competition, filmed on
Prudential Hall’s Betty Wold
Johnson stage without an
audience. The program was
then streamed on Facebook,
with a distanced audience
offering encouragement to the
singers through cheerful posts
full of clapping hands emojis.
But most unusual of all? The top
prize was shared by two young
singers — the first time the
competition has ended in a tie.
Gabrielle Cavassa, 26, of
New Orleans, and Tawanda
Suessbrich-Joaquim, 25, a Las
Cruces native, were named
the winners. Each singer took
home a $5,000 cash prize.
“You’re witnessing history!” said
Walker, as both singers were
handed the first prize plaque.
The pandemic shadowed the
event in all kinds of ways,
including giving a melancholy
air to the songs performed.
“This is a song about a feeling
that I’ve had, but that I don’t
know if I can express in words
alone. It’s about things like love,
desperation, hopelessness, fear,
things that are hard to speak
out loud, but with music I can,”
Cavassa explained before
segueing into “Never Let Me
Go,” accompanying herself
on guitar. She also performed
“Easy to Love” and “I’ve
Never Been in Love Before.”
“This is a song about
endurance — a skill I’ve been
practicing this last year, as
we all have,” said Suessbrich-
Joaquim, introducing “Guess I’ll
Hang My Tears Out To Dry.” She
also performed “All Or Nothing
At All,” and then, noting that
is was “time for something
sassy,” she launched into
the much more cheerful “Ain’t
Nobody’s Business” (originally
“Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if
I Do”), a 1920s blues song.
Twice the talent: For the first
time in the history of NJPAC’s
Sarah Vaughan International
Jazz Vocal Competition, the
2020 top prize was shared by
two outstanding jazz vocalists,
Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim
and Gabrielle Cavassa.
A total of four finalists,
selected from more than 600
submissions, performed live in
front of only a handful of family
members, and the competition
judges, who included NJPAC’s
Jazz Advisor Christian McBride,
singers Carmen Lundy and
Vanessa Rubin, producer Chuck
Mitchell and WBGO’s interim
president Robert Ottenhoff.
The other two finalists who
performed were Hailey Brinnel
of Philadelphia, and Benny
Bennack II of New York, who
took third place in the contest. •
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