16 Composers Receive More Than $200K from American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the sixteen recipients of this year’s awards in music, which total $205,000. The winners were selected by a committee of Academy members chaired by Joan Tower which also included Samuel Adler, Martin Boykan, Mario Davidovsky, Stephen Hartke, Stephen Jaffe, and Aaron Jay Kernis. The awards will be presented at the Academy’s annual Ceremonial in May. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the 250 members of the Academy.
Arts and Letters Awards in Music
Four composers will each receive a $10,000 Arts and Letters Award in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges the composer who has arrived at his or her own voice. Each will receive an additional $10,000 toward the recording of one work. The winners are Billy Childs, Harold Meltzer, Kevin Puts, and Kurt Rohde.
Walter Hinrichsen Award
Paul Kerekes will receive the Walter Hinrichsen Award for the publication of a work by a gifted composer. This award was established by the C. F. Peters Corporation, music publishers, in 1984.
Benjamin H. Danks Award
Alex Mincek will receive the Benjamin H. Danks Award of $20,000 for a young composer of ensemble music.
Goddard Lieberson Fellowships
Two Goddard Lieberson Fellowships of $15,000, endowed in 1978 by the CBS Foundation, are given to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts. This year they will go to Scott Johnson and David Sanford.
Charles Ives Fellowships
Harmony Ives, the widow of Charles Ives, bequeathed to the Academy the royalties of Charles Ives’s music, which has enabled the Academy to give the Ives awards in composition since 1970. Two Charles Ives Fellowships of $15,000 will be awarded to Jason Eckardt and Erin Gee.
Charles Ives Scholarships
Julia Adolphe, Emily Cooley, Paul Frucht, Max Grafe, Polina Nazaykinskaya, and Christopher Trapani will receive Charles Ives Scholarships of $7500, given to composition students of great promise.
(—from the press release)