Sherisse Rogers

A graduate of Manhattan School of Music Masters program in 2004, Sherisse Rogers has won has some of the most prestigious awards in her field including the 2004 winner of the ASCAP/IAJE Emerging Composer Award in Honor of Count Basie.

A Philadelphia native, Sherisse played many instruments before deciding to become a composer. In addition to a successful freelance career as a composer/arranger and orchestrator, she also maintains a steady freelance career as an electric bassist, and also works as a Broadway pit musician.

At a relatively young age she achieved high-level recognition in the field of jazz composition. She received the 2001 Best Arrangement award from The American Society of Musicians Composers and Arrangers for her orchestral arrangement of Here’s that Rainy Day. She was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in years 2003, 2005 and 2007.

In 2005 she won the BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Award for her piece A Slippery Slope and was given the Manny Albam Memorial Commission for the following year where she premiered her large jazz ensemble piece I Stand Corrected.

In 2006 she received the Herb Albert Foundation/IAJE Gil Evans Fellowship. In 2007 she also received the 2007 Meet the Composer Van Lier Fellowship.

In 2008 she won Best Composition award in the annual international Thelonious Monk Institute competition.

A versatile composer, her styles range from jazz and classical to world music and Rhythm & Blues. She was a regular arranger and orchestrator for the world-renowned crossover orchestra The Metropole Orchestra based in the Netherlands from 2007-2009, and she was a featured composer and clinician in Stockholm, Sweden at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

In 2007 she was a featured artist at the Jazz Cologne 07 jazz festival where her compositions were performed by the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.

In addition to receiving commisions from high schools and colleges, she has written or arranged music for Dave Liebman and Peter Erskine. Her works are published by the respected jazz music publisher Walrus Music and her music is found in libraries of numerous high schools and universities throughout the United States.

In 2005 her big band Project Uprising released their first recording entitled Sleight of Hand which received a rare 4.5 star review (out of 5) in Downbeat magazine. The CD features respected jazz saxophonist and composer Dave Liebman, in addition to other special guests. Her big band appeared numerous times at The Jazz Gallery in New York City since 2004.

During her time at Manhattan School of Music she studied with Michael Abene. Some of her other teachers have included Jim McNeely, Dave Liebman, and Matt Harris.