Professional News

UK Musicians, WUKY DJ Recognized at Lexington Music Awards

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 11, 2015) – Two University of Kentucky faculty musicians and a WUKY DJ took home honors at the first Lexington Music Awards, held Feb. 22, at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington.

Joe Conkwright of WUKY was awarded Best Radio DJ, Kevin Holm-Hudson of the UK School of Music was awarded Best Keyboard and Miles Osland of the UK School of Music was awarded Best Brass/Winds and Best Jazz/World for his band DOJO (DiMartino-Osland Jazz Orchestra).

The idea for the Lexington Music Awards came about from Lexington musician and music teacher, David McLean. McLean intended for the event to be a small gathering, but soon realized that there was much more interest in the event than he originally predicted.

In order to determine the winners of each category, McLean had the public make nominations online. He then narrowed down the votes to the top four candidates per category and then had individual nominees vote on each category to determine the winners.

Joe Conkwright of WUKY won Best Radio DJ. Conkwright has worked as a producer, host and announcer for WUKY since 1998. He currently produces a one-hour show called "Joe's Blues," which airs 8-9 p.m. Mondays and again from 11 p.m.-midnight Fridays. Conkwright can also be heard on 91.3 from noon to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday during "Rock & Roots."

Kevin Holm-Hudson of the UK School of Music was voted Best Keyboard. Holm-Hudson, an associate professor of music theory, has taught at UK since 2000. He holds a doctoral degree in composition (with an ethnomusicology emphasis) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also the author of "Genesis and the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (Ashgate, 2008) and the editor of "Progressive Rock Reconsidered" (Routledge, 2002).

Miles Osland of the UK School of Music was awarded Best Brass/Winds and Best Jazz/World for his band DOJO, created with former UK School of Music professor, Vince DiMartino. Osland has been teaching saxophone at UK since 1989 and currently serves as director of Jazz Studies. Osland holds a master's degree from Eastman School of Music. As a distinguished performing artist, Osland has recorded previously with Sea Breeze Jazz Records. The record company had even submitted some of Osland's pieces for Grammy nominations. 

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu