Rufus Reid And The Discovery Orchestra's George Marriner Maull To Be Honored At The 2024 Wharton Arts Gala

On Thursday, March 7, 2024, Wharton Arts will honor award-winning jazz bassist, educator, and composer Rufus Reid with its Lifetime Achievement Award at its Annual Gala. An active presence in the jazz world since the 1970s, Reid has recorded over 500 albums and can be heard on recordings with Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Quartet, Kenny Barron, Stan Getz, J.J. Johnson, Lee Konitz, and Jack DeJohnette, among others. His reputation as an educator is equal to that of his musical achievements.

Reid's book, The Evolving Bassist (Myriad Limited, 1974), remains the industry standard for double bass methodology. Reid and Dr. Martin Krivin created the Jazz Studies and Performance Bachelor of Music Program at William Paterson University, a program offering the first professional academically accredited Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies in the tri-state area.

Reid received the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the MacDowell Colony Grant. His 2014 release, Quiet Pride - The Elizabeth Catlett Project, received two Grammy Nominations for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Instrumental Composition.

The prestigious Wharton Arts Lifetime Achievement Award distinguishes individuals who, during their lifetime, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the performing arts and represent a beacon of inspiration to Wharton Arts' students. Previous Wharton Arts Lifetime Achievement honorees were Jamie Bernstein, John Debney, Paul Shaffer, and Angel Blue.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, Wharton Arts will honor George Marriner Maull with its Education Award at the 2024 Gala. Maestro Maull's musical affiliations in New Jersey began with his joint appointment in 1979 as Assistant Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and founding Music Director and Conductor of the New Jersey Youth Symphony (NJYS). He led NJYS, now a program of Wharton Arts, for eighteen seasons until 1997, including three performances at Carnegie Hall and on four European tours: Belgium and The Netherlands (1983), Belgium and England (1985), Romania and Hungary (1987), and Poland (1989). Under his leadership, NJYS received First Prize at both the 1983 and the 1985 European Music Festival for Youth in Belgium, and was the subject of a 1987 WNET New York Channel 13 documentary entitled Art Effects: Young & Noteworthy.

Today, Maull is the Artistic Director of The Discovery Orchestra and three-time Emmy-nominated public television personality, touching the lives of millions of individuals nationwide and abroad by helping them to heighten their classical music listening pleasure through his Discovery Concerts distributed by American Public Television and APT Worldwide. These programs, including his signature listening course, Fall in Love with Music, are available to stream on Amazon Prime and PBS Passport. His public radio show, Inside Music, is broadcast on second and fourth Saturdays each month at 7:30 p.m. on WWFM, 89.1 The Classical Network in Princeton. Maull believes that everyone has the innate ability to become a virtuoso music listener.

Wharton Arts' Annual Gala will feature student performances and a live auction at the Westmount Country Club, 728 Rifle Camp Road in Woodland Park, NJ. To attend the gala and support Wharton Arts, including its silent auction, please visit WhartonArtsGala.org.