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Meet the Winners of the 2024 Mary Alice Stuart Scholarship

By JAZZ.FM91 2024/07/18

Left: Thales Hunter, Right: Eric Liang (both pictured with Brad Barker)

JAZZ.FM91 is pleased to announce that Thales Hunter and Eric Liang are the 2024 recipients of the Mary Alice Stuart Scholarship.

Mary Alice Stuart, the founding chair of JAZZ.FM91, made an unparalleled contribution to the organization, helping to make JAZZ.FM91 the successful enterprise it is today. To honour her legacy, a program was developed in 2009 that awards annual $1,000 scholarships to outstanding emerging jazz artists who are completing their studies at the four Toronto-based post-secondary institutions currently offering jazz programs.

This year’s finalists for the Mary Alice Stuart Scholarship included bassist Alex McPherson, guitarist Dipo Adeola, vocalist Jessie Ferguson, pianist and keyboardist Gabriel Sanchez, and pianist Spencer Duncan-Dortan.

Both winners were interviewed by Brad Barker earlier this month, take a listen below.

Thales Hunter is a student of jazz at York University, and an active member of the Toronto jazz scene both as a guitarist and as a drummer. A regular performer at some of the city’s most prominent jazz venues, he is constantly striving to better his musicianship and to make long-lasting connections with fellow artists. His unchanging quest is to understand as much as possible the profundities of music and to find the notes that touch people’s spirits.

Eric Liang is a pianist and composer born in Canada. He is currently completing his Bachelor of Music at the University of Toronto and is an active pianist in the Toronto jazz scene, frequenting venues such as the Jazz Bistro and the Rex. Eric has performed with Neil Swainson, Pat Labarbara, Terry Clarke, Ethan Ardelli, Artie Roth, Jon Maharaj, and Laura Anglade in addition to many other big names in the jazz world. Eric studies with instructors including Glenn Zaleski, Aaron Parks, and Chris Donnelly. Eric is also an alumnus of the JAZZ.FM91 Youth Big Band 2019-2020.