Luther College announces 2025 recipients of Homecoming music awards

This 2025 Homecoming season, Luther College continued the tradition of presenting the Weston Noble, Dr. Carlo A. Sperati and Hemp Prize Awards, which recognize excellence and achievement in music and music education. Student and alumni award winners are recognized each year during the annual Homecoming concert. This year’s concert took place on Sunday, Oct. 5.

2025 Weston Noble Award

Juan Tony Guzmán, director of the jazz program and professor of music at Luther College, is the 2025 recipient of the Weston Noble Award. Weston Noble served on Luther’s music faculty from 1948 to 2005. During that time, the college grew in numbers and national reputation, and Noble became a leader in training trailblazers in the field of music education. Established in 2004, the Weston Noble Award recognizes music educators who honor and continue Noble’s legacy.

“Receiving this award inspires me to keep improving my service to Luther College and to the world,” Guzmán said. “I was close to Mr. Noble since I came to the United States in 1988. Like many others, I benefited from his wisdom, generosity, kindness and humor. This award has deep personal meaning and professional significance to me. I hope to contribute to the legacy of our great educator, Mr. Noble. I am grateful for this distinction.”

Guzmán is a widely sought-after conductor for all-state and honor choirs, concert bands, jazz bands and symphony orchestras in North America, Central and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. An active arranger, Guzmán is known for his arrangements of Caribbean and Latin American music. Many of Guzmán’s arrangements have been published by Boosey & Hawkes and Oxford University Press.

He has done clinics and presentations for the Dominican Republic National System of Youth Orchestras, the World Choral Symposium, the Music Educators National Conference, Associação de Regentes de Corais do Brasil, the Association of British Choral Directors, the Scottish Association for Music Education, the Festival 500 in Canada, and the AMIS International Music Festival among others.

Guzmán holds a Ph.D., a certificate in pedagogy of music theory and a master’s degree from Florida State University. In 1990, he earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Luther. He also has a degree in electromechanical engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Guzmán served as the Weston Noble Endowed Chair in Music from 2017 to 2020. In 2018, Guzmán received the Dr. Carlo A. Sperati Award and is among an elite list of people to have been awarded both honors from Luther College.

2025 Dr. Carlo A. Sperati Award

Jon Ailabouni, Luther College graduate of 2010, is the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Carlo A. Sperati Award. Sperati, a pillar of Luther College and the Lutheran music tradition, was the conductor of the Luther College Concert Band for 38 years until his retirement in 1943. His work ethic and demand for perfection and patience when working with music students are part of the identity of the Luther College music department to this day. This award recognizes those traits in music educators as they follow in Sperati’s footsteps.

“It is an honor to share this award with so many of my heroes and mentors, and I’m humbled to be recognized for the work that I do, which is just one of many ripples that emanate from the legacy of Dr. Sperati. I am grateful to all of my teachers, colleagues, peers, collaborators and students, former and current,” Ailabouni said.

Ailabouni is an in-demand trumpeter, composer and educator living in La Crosse, Wis. He serves as the director of jazz studies at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL), where he teaches the trumpet studio and courses in improvisation and directs the Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, jazz combos, and the Hoefer Brass Quintet.

Ailabouni’s background is steeped in Western European classical music and Black American music traditions including the blues, modern jazz and free improvisation. His creative work focuses on instrumental composition and improvisation that uses emotion and story as focal points for expression. Recent creative projects include his debut album of original music entitled “You Are Not Alone” (SkyDeck Music, 2023) and liturgy setting “The Spirit Is Moving: A Jazz Liturgy of Renewal” (Jon Ailabouni Music, 2025). Ailabouni can be heard performing regularly with Chris Merz and Shorter Stories, Mike Conrad and the Iowa Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, Isthmus Brass, and the La Crosse Jazz Orchestra. Ailabouni is a frequent clinician and guest artist including at the Jazz Education Network Conference and jazz festivals across the country.

Ailabouni earned his master’s degree in jazz studies from Western Michigan University in 2013. He taught at Luther College from 2013 to 2021 and has served on the faculty at UWL since 2021.

2025 Hemp Family Prize for Orchestra Performance

Luther College senior Audrey Zielstra is the 2025 recipient of the Hemp Prize. The Richard C. and Joann M. Hemp Family Prize for Orchestra Performance is given annually to a senior member of the Luther College Symphony Orchestra. The $8,000 scholarship is funded through an endowment established by Richard ’64 and Joann (Harr) Hemp ’65. Richard Hemp is a regent emeritus, former chair of the Luther College Board of Regents and former interim president of Luther College. The auditioned prize awards students of exceptional performance, talent, musicianship and leadership.

Zielstra is the principal percussionist of the Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band. She is the first percussionist to receive the Hemp Prize in the scholarship’s history.

“I am grateful to the Hemp family for this opportunity, and I am honored to represent Luther’s hard-working percussion studio,” she said. “I’m still shocked to have received this award as a non-music major. It really has been such an amazing experience.”

Zielstra is majoring in history and anthropology. She started learning percussion when she was in the sixth grade at her middle school in Glenwood, Iowa.

“Some of my favorite musical experiences at Luther have been traveling with Concert Band on their tour to Japan, performing with the percussion ensemble in Christmas at Luther, and playing timpani for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s monumental masterpiece, Requiem in D minor, KV 626 last spring,” Zielstra said.