Taken from Lawrence Today, Summer 1997
Javier Arau, '97, tenor saxophonist from Sacramento, California, has been honored in Down Beat magazine for the second year in a row. His piece "Southland" won the original/extended jazz composition category in the magazine's twentieth-annual student music awards contest. Arau is the first two-time Down Beat winner at Lawrence, which has won nine "DB's" since 1985, including one each for the past four years. He was honored in 1996 for outstanding performance in the jazz instrumentalist category.
The Down Beat award was Arau's second national honor this year. In April he was a member of the Lawrence saxophone quartet that won first place in the Music Teachers National Association's collegiate chamber competition in Dallas, Texas.