FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 22, 2020 (Bethesda, MD) – The sixth annual Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards, produced by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, will once again feature a live concert performed by the competition finalists on Friday, March 13 at 7:30pm at Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Tickets begin at $15 and are available at www.bethesda.org.

The following five songwriters will perform their original songs at the concert. One will win the $10,000 Grand Prize and 25 hours of complimentary recording studio time at Innovation Station Music.

• DuPont Brass, D.C. Metro Area
  Co-writers: Anthony Daniel Jr, Jared Bailey, Isaac Bell IV, Jake Grotticelli
• Hayley Fahey, Derwood, MD
  Select songs co-written with Austin Bello of Bristow, VA
• Genna Matthew, Charlottesville, VA
• Eric Scott, North Beach, MD
• Maimouna Youssef, Baltimore, MD

Three Young Songwriters will also perform live and compete for$2,500.

• Naomi Farkas, Clarksville, MD; River Hill High School, 12th Grade
• Anya Gupta, Potomac, MD; Holton-Arms School, 11th Grade
• Seger Ott-Rudolph, Silver Spring, MD; A. Mario Loiederman Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts, 7th Grade

The Awards are named after the late Fred Ebb, a renowned American songwriter known for Broadway hits such as Cabaret and Chicago and for iconic songs, including New York, New York. Mr. Ebb is the uncle of Cathy Bernard, the founder of the competition and a Bethesda resident. Cathy seized the opportunity to create a program that would champion musicians and highlight the local music scene.

“We are pleased to once again produce the Bernard/Ebb Songwriting Awards,” said Bernard. “Over the last five years we have celebrated incredible, talented songwriters and have been excited to give a spotlight to many regional musicians. We are looking forward to another year of recognizing local talent and bringing a night of live music to downtown Bethesda.”

The Grand Prize Jury will offer feedback to the songwriters throughout the show and will select and announce the $10,000 Grand Prize Winner at end of the concert. In addition to $10,000, the Grand Prize Winner will also win 25 hours of recording studio time with Innovation Station Music. One of the young songwriters will win a $2,500 Young Songwriter prize.

The 2020 Grand Prize Jurors

• John Escobar, a producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and educator, is well known for his versatility, which he attributes to his culturally diverse upbringing. His work has spanned many genres over the years, allowing him to work with great artists including multi-Grammy nominees Highly Suspect, the jazz guitar virtuoso Larry Coryell, Grammy-winning folk artist Sarah Jarosz, indie pop band Fences (featuring the Grammy-winning hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), and classical violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, among many others. He has also worked on projects with Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Music, Universal Music, Focus Features, NASA and NPR. He is currently a professor in the Music Production and Engineering department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
• Tiffany Goss, a Nashville-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Over the span of her career she has had stops at Buddy Killen Publishing as a staff writer and Curb Music Publishing as both Creative Director and a staff writer. Tiffany’s songs have been recorded by artists like Brooks and Dunn, Brett Young, Clay Walker, Delta Rae and Chris Janson. Her talents have brought her into the world of television with placements on shows like The Bachelor, Hart of Dixie, Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart and Fox News.
• Thomas Mizer is an award-winning lyricist and librettist whose work has appeared on stages and screens, in magazines and across billboards. He is the 2016 Fred Ebb Award winner and was the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theatre Wing — both for his musical collaborations with Curtis Moore. Most recently, along with Moore, their credits include five original songs for the third season of the Emmy-winning series,The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Additionally, they’ve worked on commissions from Lincoln Center and the Williamstown Theater Festival as well as residencies with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals and the American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University.

Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club will feature a dinner menu. Audience members can arrive beginning at 5:30pm to enjoy dinner at the theater before the 7:30pm concert. Food and drink are not included in the ticket price.

Please visit www.bethesda.org or call 301/215-6660 for more information.