Joey Kim-Weigandt Wins Coveted DownBeat Award AGAIN!🔥

Young Lions Jazz Conservatory is proud to announce that YLJC student, Joey Kim-Weigandt, has won the prestigious Downbeat Magazine’s 48th Annual Student Music Awards for High School Honors Outstanding Composition with his original composition entitled "A Little Reminiscing"! 👏🎉

" I’ve always felt a connection to music. And when I discovered jazz music it resonated with me immediately. I love communicating with band-mates and audiences when comping for soloists, creating jazz harmonies, and improvising my own solos. Sharing my original jazz compositions also gives me a sense of connection with the friends I have found through music.

Writing music has helped me explore my feelings during different parts of my life. For example, I wrote "Boba’s Bounce" about my dog who has brought so much joy into my life. The up-beat and quirky 13- ½ bar form is a perfect representation of my silly dog Boba. I wrote “Poached Eggs with Grandpa" for my grandfather’s 80th birthday, inspired by a happy memory of making poached eggs with my grandpa on a Sunday morning. “A Little Reminiscing”, which won a Downbeat award this year, was me looking back at my experiences in YLJC. My compositions take inspiration from the works of my favorite artists, like Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock.

The most rewarding part of the experience is bringing in my original compositions to Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, and hearing them played back by talented young musicians. And I’m grateful to my mentor Gilbert Castellanos for the many chances I’ve had to do just that.  

I am graduating from Canyon Crest Academy this year and am excited to take the next step in my musical journey in the fall as a Jazz Studies (piano performance) major at USC."

— Joey Kim-Weigandt —