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The Winner of the Paul Acket Award 2009 ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’ is Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani. He will be presented with the award during the North Sea Jazz Festival and perform with his band ‘I Visionari’.

“Stefano Bollani is an adventurous pianist with a striking personal sound that is enlightened, virtuoso and human,” says the jury, consisting of Huub van Riel (Bimhuis), Koen Schouten (de Volkskrant) and Hein van der Geyn (bassist and also a winner of the Bird award). The jury believes his improvisations are clear, intelligent and fresh at the same time. With Bollani musical possibilities seem endless, which makes him a true jazz musician in the eyes of the jury. Also nominated were: Tineke Postma (saxophone), Esperanza Spalding (bass), Christian Scott (trumpet), Marcin Wasilewski (piano).

De Paul Acket Award ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’ is an annual prize, awarded to an artist who deserves more recognition for his or her work, according the jury. The nominees are chosen by a selection of international jazz critics. The winner is picked from a maximum of five nominees by a jury of three jazz music professionals. The 2009 winner was selected based on the following criteria:
- the winner has had a professional career of 20 years at the most;
- the winner is known to the principals of the jazz industry, but not yet widely recognized by a larger audience;
- the prize is awarded only to jazz musicians, not to performers of related musical genres like soul, funk or blues.

Stefano Bollani will receive the Paul Acket Award 2009 ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’ at the coming edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival. He will also perform with his band ‘I Visionari’ in the Madeira venue on 10 July at 7.45 p.m. 

The Paul Acket Award is presented to groups or persons, musicians and otherwise, who have contributed or contribute largely to the development of jazz music. The award commemorates the founder of the North Sea Jazz Festival, Paul Acket, and knows two categories: ‘Special Appreciation’ and ‘Artist Deserving Wider Recognition’. From 1985 until 2006, this international prize was known as the ‘Bird Award’.

De Paul Acket Award 2009 ‘Special Appreciation’

This prize is not awarded annually, but this year the award will be presented to Cees Schrama for his important contribution to jazz music in general and to the North Sea Jazz Festival in particular. Since the first edition, Cees Schrama has been involved with the festival in numerous capacities. For many festival goers Cees is a familiar face because he has presented the program in the Amazon venue (previously the PWA) for so many years. By special request of Paul Acket, he has been an active on the board of the North Sea Jazz Festival Foundation for a long time.