Young Irish Jazz Musician

Young Irish Jazz Musician is a showcase for the best of emerging jazz talent across the island of Ireland. At the inaugural 2022 event the award went to pianist Nils Kavanagh from Sligo. Nils has gone on to a national tour and was Young Artist in Residence at the Sligo Jazz Festival in 2023.

Limerick Jazz will host Young Irish Jazz Musician 2024 in University Concert Hall, Limerick on the evening of Sunday 17th November 2024. Finalists will perform with a professional house band before an expert panel of judges and a live audience. We are delighted to announce that Bill Whelan and Ellen Cranitch have agreed to participate in the judging panel as in 2022.

The Young Irish Jazz Musician 2024 will be invited to perform at the internationally renowned Limerick Jazz Festival and will also receive a bursary of five hundred euro to put towards developing their career through further study or making a recording.

“The award has been instrumental to the development of my career and has enabled me to achieve many things I would not have done otherwise at this stage in my life", Nils Kavanagh, Young Irish Jazz Musician 2022.

The competition is open to young Irish musicians aged 16 to 23 and secondary school students can combine their entries with the study of improvised music as part of their broader Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle music studies.

Band:Leopoldo Oslo (Piano)Peter Hanagan (Bass) 

John Daly (Drums)

Compère: Ed Hansom