Jazz Fellowship
Omomuki's jazz fellowship provides supplementary funding for a musician enrolled in a four-year program.
2025 Recipient
Caelan Cardello
Caelan Cardello is a New York City-based composer and pianist who performs regularly at many of the city’s legendary jazz haunts including Dizzy’s, Minton’s Playhouse, Smalls, Mezzrow, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He was a finalist in the 2023 American Pianists Awards and a semifinalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock International Piano Competition. His debut album, “Chapter One,” is being released in August of 2025 on Jazz Bird Records. Caelan was born and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. He has been mentored by some of the most sought-after luminaries in jazz piano, including Harold Mabern, Fred Hersch, Bill Charlap and Dave Kikoski. He is the recipient of the New Jersey Governor's Award, the James Moody College Scholarship Award for Outstanding Musicianship, and the 2021 BMI Foundation’s Future Jazz Master Award. He received his Master’s degree in 2025 from the Juilliard School.
2024 Recipient
Robert Gilliam
Robert is a tenor saxophonist in his final year of his graduate studies at The Juilliard School. He is originally from Dallas, Texas and is a graduate of the Peabody Institute. His artistic journey began as a classical cellist, but he discovered the saxophone at the age of fifteen. Since then, Robert has devoted himself to mastering his instrument and advancing Black American Music.
2023 Recipient
Sarah Hanahan + The Juilliard School
Sarah Hanahan is a jazz saxophonist and recipient of our 2023 Jazz Fellowship. She is from Marlborough, Massachusetts and a graduate of the Hartt School's Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford. Sarah is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in jazz performance at the Juilliard School in New York City.
2022 Recipient
Aayushi Karnik
Aayushi is a jazz guitarist from Surat, India and in her fourth year pursuing a Bachelor of Music Degree at The Juilliard School in New York City. She is the recipient of Omomuki’s Juilliard Jazz Scholarship for both 2021 and 2022. Aayushi recently released a four-song EP called “The Summer Children,” which comprises the songs she wrote during the quarantine period and her time in India before she returned to the United States for her final year at Juilliard. The EP takes influences from Bluegrass, Jazz, Blues and Songwriting traditions. In her May, 2022 Juilliard graduation concert, Aayushi performed ten pieces (six arrangements and four original compositions) and incorporated musicians on bass, piano, drums, violin, vocals, trombone, alto saxophone, and trumpet.
2021 Recipients
Josh Evans
Josh Evans is an American trumpeter and received the Omomuki Jazz Composition Grant. The grant provides funding for Josh to compose and record Mansa Mali, an evening-length suite for quintet, which he began composing in 2016 for MoMA and completed through the Omomuki grant. Mansa Mali debuted in two live performances at Dizzy's at Jazz at Lincoln Center on February 24-25, 2022.