Navy Band Announces Winner Of Inaugural Composition Award  

WASHINGTON - The United States Navy Band awarded the inaugural Alton Augustus Adams Sr. Award for Emerging Composers to Jaylin Vinson of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for his chamber work “Afrophilia.”

“Afrophilia is a sonic expression of my love of African and African diasporic music. It incorporates harmonic and melodic idioms from jazz, hip-hop, and gospel. This piece is a raw product of me exploring and loving every sense of Blackness that is quintessential to my existence,” said Vinson.

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“Afrophilia” will be premiered by the U.S. Navy Band Woodwind Quintet on Feb. 9, 2023, at Howard University’s Childers Recital Hall at 12:40 p.m.

A violinist, Vinson is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in composition from the Sheperd School of Music at Rice University in Houston.

The award honors the Navy Band’s first Black bandmaster, Chief Musician Alton August Adams Sr., who led an all-Black Navy band at the height of racial segregation policies in the United States across society, including in all branches of the military. Announced in August 2021, the award was designed to pay tribute to the legacy of Adams’ life and service, honoring his embodiment of the Navy’s core values to bring about social change.

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