Katie Webster, an 18-year-old saxophonist from Seattle, has been named the 22nd recipient of the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, a four-year, full tuition award presented in conjunction with the Monterey Jazz Festival. She is the very first female recipient of the Lyons Award.
“Katie received Outstanding Soloist at this year’s Next Generation Jazz Festival, and the choice was an easy one for the judges,” said Paul Contos, director of education for the Monterey Jazz Festival. “Her tone and approach to the alto saxophone are both highly advanced, and show great respect for the legacy of the jazz tradition. It’s an absolute delight hearing her play, so I was very excited to learn she’d won the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship. We expect she’ll do great things at Berklee.”
Recently, Webster was awarded Outstanding Alto Saxophone by Wynton Marsalis and a panel of judges at Essentially Ellington 2018. At the 2018 Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival, Webster was named Outstanding Soloist, and also awarded a scholarship to the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program. Other soloist awards include the Reno Jazz Festival (2016) and the University of Washington Jazz Festival (2018).
“I’ve been very impressed with Katie’s ear, and her facility on the horn,” said Berklee woodwind instructor Edmar Colón, Webster’s private saxophone instructor and ensemble teacher in the 2018 Berklee Summer Performance Program. “But more than this, I see that she has an exceptional drive to learn and improve. Nobody becomes great without that, and she has it.”
