Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
Keeping the Flame at Van Gelder Studio
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) has announced its 2005 finalists—individuals who were selected out of almost 15,000 entries from 80 countries and who represent the top 1.4 percent of all entries.
The fate of the finalists rest in the hands of ten record label presidents, and artists such as Loretta Lynn, Sonny Rollins, Tom Waits, Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Steve Vai, and Darryl McDaniels (RUN DMC). The 50 winners of the competition will be announced in March, and the prizes include over $150,000 in cash and merchandise, including the top honors of ISC 2005 Overall Grand Prize winner.
The Grand Prize winner will receive a package put together especially for the benefit of their song-writing and career. The package includes $10,000 cash; a college radio promotion campaign; legal services from a music attorney; a CD Duplication Package; premium recording software and hardware; music and recording equipment.
The people will also be able to choose a winner through the 2005 People’s Voice, an online voting contest.
The songs can be found at www.songwritingcompetition.com/pvwelcome_2005.htm.
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
Trio aRT with its avalanche of instrumentation: from left, Pheeroan akLaff, Scott Robinson and Julian Thayer.
Sep 3, 2025 12:03 PM
Trio aRT, a working unit since 1988, shockingly released its very first studio recording this summer. Recorded in…
“Think of all the creative people I’m going to meet and a whole other way of thinking about music and a challenge of singing completely different material than I would have sung otherwise to my highest level in dedication to the moment,” Elling says about his Broadway run.
Sep 9, 2025 1:18 PM
Kurt Elling was back at home in Chicago, grabbing some family time in a late-June window between gigs. Sporting a smile…
Pat Metheny will perform with his Side-Eye III ensemble at Big Ears 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, next March.
Sep 9, 2025 12:19 PM
Big Ears has announced the lineup for its 2026 festival, which will take place March 26–29 and include 250…
Mark Masters, right, with Billy Harper.
Sep 3, 2025 12:00 PM
The Rising Star Category of this publication’s annual Critics Poll was once called Talent Deserving Wider Recognition…
