Pianist and flautist Alma Macbride is currently an honor roll student at the prestigious Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford CT, with a full scholarship to attend the school. She is the piano chair of the Jazz Band as well as being first flute in the school's premier orchestra. This orchestra will be touring Italy in the summer of 2012. In 2012, Alma was awarded an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award for her composition Full House. She was the first ever recipient of the Susan Freydberg Scholarship for her musical talent. This scholarship enabled Alma to attend the International Festival of Jazz Educators in Toronto, Canada in 2007. She is also the 2009 winner of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Mary Lou Williams Competition, where she performed with Wynton Marsalis and the JALC Orchestra in NYC. Recently, Alma was accepted to be a member of the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra. This big band of highly talented high school musicians performs weekly at the Jazz Standard in NYC. Alma was the featured performer at the Pittsfield City Jazz Festival Piano Prodigy Series in October of last year.
She is a member of The Duo Con Alma, a performing group that performs at senior centers, libraries, and the like throughout the community. The money raised is donated to the instrumental music funds of Whiting Lane School. To date, this group has raised over $5,000. Other recent community involvement included a self-produced performance at the Hartt School, where donations were collected for West Hartford’s Gifts of Music Program. This program provides funds for needy students to have private music lessons as well as providing instruments for these children. Alma performs freelance throughout the Greater Hartford area, in both concert settings and in the orchestra of music theater productions. Recent performances have included opening for Jeremy Pelt, part of the Hartford Jazz Society Wadsworth Athenaeum series and bringing her quartet to perform at First Night Hartford 2011.
During the summer of 2010, Alma was a participant at the Stanford Jazz Residency and the Skidmore Jazz Workshop, having received scholarships to attend these programs. In addition, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend Grammy Camp in LA for 10 days, courtesy of the Grammy Foundation, New York Chapter.
Alma studies piano privately with Noah Baerman and Sophia Rosoff.
She is a member of The Duo Con Alma, a performing group that performs at senior centers, libraries, and the like throughout the community. The money raised is donated to the instrumental music funds of Whiting Lane School. To date, this group has raised over $5,000. Other recent community involvement included a self-produced performance at the Hartt School, where donations were collected for West Hartford’s Gifts of Music Program. This program provides funds for needy students to have private music lessons as well as providing instruments for these children. Alma performs freelance throughout the Greater Hartford area, in both concert settings and in the orchestra of music theater productions. Recent performances have included opening for Jeremy Pelt, part of the Hartford Jazz Society Wadsworth Athenaeum series and bringing her quartet to perform at First Night Hartford 2011.
During the summer of 2010, Alma was a participant at the Stanford Jazz Residency and the Skidmore Jazz Workshop, having received scholarships to attend these programs. In addition, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend Grammy Camp in LA for 10 days, courtesy of the Grammy Foundation, New York Chapter.
Alma studies piano privately with Noah Baerman and Sophia Rosoff.