Gold Winner Holly Arsenault Trio
Silver Winner Willem Paynter
Bronze Winner Karen Myatt
“Jazz is the trunk of my tree,” Holly Arsenault says. “It informs everything I do—the study of jazz is big picture. It’s spontaneous but not random.” In a year filled with gigs and creative projects, she thinks one thing has stood out: “Putting my Jazz Fest show together, I took music from the summers of my youth, the ’70s, and people have remarked on it since.” While she promises there’s “a lot more ’70s music in my future,” she’s mostly excited to be part of Halifax’s ever-growing jazz scene. “There’s so many good players and players of all generations. I’m in my 50s and I’m seeing kids mastering things at a much younger age than I did. I feel like I’m just getting started.”
