Marin Alsop, Frances Richard & Steven Schick to Receive ACF Champion of New Music Awards

The American Composers Forum will present its 2014 Champion of New Music award to conductor Marin Alsop, retired ASCAP Vice President of Concert Music Frances Richard, and percussionist Steven Schick, at public ceremonies this spring in Baltimore, New York City, and Saint Paul.

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NewMusicBox Staff

The 2014 ACF Champions of New Music: Marin Alsop, Fran Richard and Steven Schick

The 2014 ACF Champions of New Music: Marin Alsop, Frances Richard, and Steven Schick

The American Composers Forum’s board of directors has voted to present three 2014 Champion of New Music awards. Conductor Marin Alsop, retired ASCAP Vice President of Concert Music Frances Richard, and percussionist Steven Schick will each receive their award from ACF President and CEO John Nuechterlein at public ceremonies this spring. The Champion of New Music award was established by ACF in 2005 as a national mark of recognition to honor individuals or ensembles that have made a significant contribution to the work and livelihoods of contemporary composers.

The award to Steven Schick will be given on Saturday, April 5, 2014, during a concert by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Schick, at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The award to Frances Richard will be given on Thursday, May 22, 2014, at the ASCAP Concert Music Awards ceremony at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The award to Marin Alsop will be given on Friday, June 6, 2014, during the 8:00 p.m. concert by the Baltimore Symphony at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, Maryland.

Past recipients of the Champion of New Music award include the JACK Quartet (2012), eighth blackbird (2011), Bill Ryan and the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble (2010), Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra (2009), Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence (2009), Bruce Carlson and The Schubert Club (2007), Dale Warland and the Dale Warland Singers (2006), and Cindy Gehrig and the Jerome Foundation (2005).

(—from the press release)