Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has been awarded the UCLA Medal, which honours individuals whose achievements and contributions to society reflect the ideas of the University of California, Los Angeles. Launched in 1979, the UCLA Medal’s past recipients include musicians and vocalists Herb Alpert, Plácido Domingo, Ella Fitzgerald and Quincy Jones; Civil rights activists James M Lawson Jr, Loretta Jones and Rep John Lewis; Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and UN secretaries Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon.

“Wadada Leo Smith is a category-defying composer whose achievements have profoundly shaped American music,” declared UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “His work exemplifies a diversity of original thought that has enriched the lives of others.”

The award ceremony and concert will take place on 8 November at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.