Tag: composer awards

2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards Announced

Posted on February 17, 2017 by - Headlines, Ledes

The ASCAP Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 15 to 30, and are selected through a juried national competition.

The 2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients are listed with their age, current residence and place of birth. The youngest winners are listed with their age and state of residence:

Composers receiving Honorable Mention this year are: Lucas Apostoleris, age 23 of Miami, FL (New Milford, CT); Mario Castro, age 28 of New York, NY (Humacao, Puerto Rico); Andrew Leung, age 15 of California; Gina Ramirez, age 19 of Los Angeles, CA; Jordan Seigel, age 28 of Sherman Oaks, CA (Los Angeles, CA); Sara Sithi-Amnuai, age 22 of Los Angeles, CA (Australia); and Andrew Van Tassel, age 28 of New York, NY (Short Hills, NJ).

The Newport Festival Foundation will feature one of the recipients of the Herb Alpert Awards during the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival in August. The awards were established in 2002 to encourage young gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30 and carry the name of the great trumpeter and ASCAP member Herb Alpert in recognition of the Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi-year financial commitment to support this program. Additional funding for this program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund. The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2017 competition were: Anat Cohen, Keyon Harrold, and Yosvany Terry.

2017 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awardees

On Being Named Composer of the Year by Musical America

Posted on December 9, 2016 by - Articles, Commentary

Andrew Norman
[Ed. note: Most of the following text was read by Andrew Norman upon accepting his Composer of the Year award from Musical America at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Terrace Room on December 8, 2016. It is reprinted here with his permission.—FJO]

Thank you so much, Musical America, for naming me Composer of the Year.

I feel completely undeserving of this award, and of all the other attention I have received recently. I have been given so much over my lifetime, and whatever success I may achieve as a composer is due to the many people who have shaped me in profound ways: my parents, my teachers, my collaborators, my publisher, and my amazing fiancé Alex.

I have been blessed with way more than my fair share of opportunities in this field, way more chances than I deserve to cultivate my voice, to grow as a musician, and to learn from great artists and mentors. I’ve also, and perhaps most importantly, been given the opportunity to fail, to fail repeatedly, and to fail in public, and I’m so grateful for that. I want to thank all of you for allowing me to fail, for allowing me to take risks, for allowing me to push myself and for supporting me throughout the process. This means the world to me.

I can’t help but feel that this gift of failure also puts me in an incredibly privileged position. I think about all the composers who have not been granted the same good fortune that I have, composers who don’t get the chance to fail because they don’t get the chance at all, and I wonder what we as a community can do about it.

We all in this room have the power to shape what classical music is and will be for future generations. We are not just the inheritors and interpreters of a tradition, we are also the definers of that tradition, and we have a responsibility to pass on an art form that is broader, more inclusive, and more socially engaged than the one we inherited.

So to those of you in this room, particularly those of you involved in the highest levels of the symphony orchestra world: The next time you program another 19th century symphony or concerto or overture, because it’s there, because it’s a good piece, because it’s familiar and your audience will sit politely through it: just think about what you are giving up by doing so. You are giving up the chance to say something meaningful, important, thought-provoking, necessary, and specific about our own time. You are giving up the chance to give voice to a person, an experience, a point of view that we don’t already have in the concert hall. You are giving up the chance to make the canon we will pass on less white, less male, less Euro-centrically homogeneous, and more representative of the diverse, multi-faceted world in which we live.

The music of the past is undoubtedly transformative, powerful, and amazing; it is one of the great legacies of Western civilization, and it deserves and demands to be heard for generations to come, but I wonder sometimes if we aren’t sacrificing this art form’s future in order to preserve its storied past.

I believe that the most amazing masterpieces of classical music the world has ever known have yet to be written. I believe there are Mozarts and Beethovens born every day, and it is our foremost responsibility as musical citizens to find them, to cultivate them, to give them plenty of opportunities to succeed and to fail, and ultimately to let them take the art form to places we cannot yet imagine.

Thank you so much Musical America for this incredible honor. I hope I do you proud.

64th Annual BMI Student Composer Award Winners Announced

Posted on May 16, 2016 by - Headlines, Ledes

The winning works by nine young composers, ages 15 to 27, include music for orchestra and wind ensemble as well as solo and chamber pieces plus compositions involving electronics.

The BMI Foundation (BMIF), in collaboration with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), has announced nine young composers, ages 15 to 27, as the winners of the 64th annual BMI Student Composer Awards. The winning compositions include works for orchestra and wind ensemble as well as solo and chamber works plus pieces involving electronics. Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who serves as the permanent Chair of the Student Composer Awards, Mike O’Neill, BMI President and CEO and BMIF Honorary Chair, and Deirdre Chadwick, BMI’s Executive Director of Classical and the President of BMIF, announced the decisions of the jury and presented the awards at a private ceremony held on May 16, 2016, at the J. W. Marriott Essex House Hotel in New York City.

The 2016 award recipients and their award-winning compositions are:

  • David Bird (b. 1990): Drop for string octet, strobe lights, electronic sounds

  • Jack Hughes (b. 1992): Ripple for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

  • Paul Mortilla (b. 1995):
    STUPOR for trumpet, bass clarinet, double bass, piano, and drumset

Each year, two additional prizes are given to selected awardees: the William Schuman Prize, for the composer whose score was deemed the most outstanding; and the Carlos Surinach Prize, for the youngest winner in the competition. Tristan Xavier Köster was awarded the 2016 William Schuman Prize and Justin Zeitlinger received the 2016 Carlos Surinach Prize. One additional composer received an honorable mention in the competition: Avik Sarkar (b. 2001) for Purvi for orchestra (two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B flat, two bassoons, two horns in F, two trumpets in C, percussion, violins I, violins II, violas, violoncellos, double basses)

Deirdre Chadwick, director of the awards, commented, “These young composers are on the cusp of a professional life in music. This is such a special night for all of us at BMI, to watch them take the next steps towards their future, and shine a light on them as they do so. I hope winning this award helps them trust their instincts, take chances, and move forward with confidence.”

Nearly 700 online applications were submitted to the competition.

The jury members for the 2016 competition were Oscar Bettison, Marti Epstein, Charles Wuorinen, and Yehudi Wyner. The preliminary judges were Carlos Carrillo, Alexandra du Bois, Shafer Mahoney, and David Schober. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, is the permanent Chair of the competition. The BMI Student Composer Award winners receive scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education; awards this year totaled $19,000. In 2016, nearly 700 online applications were submitted to the competition from students throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged anonymously. BMI, in collaboration with the BMI Foundation, has awarded over 600 grants to young composers throughout the history of the competition.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center houses a permanent archive of BMI Student Composer Award-winning scores dating back to the 1953 inaugural competition. Winning scores are annually donated by composers to the collection on a voluntary basis and are available for study within the library.

(—from the press release)

The nine 2016 BMI Student Composer Award winners with Deirdre Chadwick, Mike O’Neill, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

The nine 2016 BMI Student Composer Award winners with BMI’s Executive Director of Classical Music/BMIF President Deirdre Chadwick (far left), BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill (far right in back), and composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, permanent Chair of the Student Composer Awards (far right in front).

Jonathan Berger and Christopher Trapani Win 2016 Rome Prize

Posted on April 22, 2016 by - Headlines, Ledes

Jonathan Berger and Christopher Trapani are the two composer recipients of 2016 Rome Prizes. The annually awarded prizes, which are selected by independent juries through a national competition process, offer a group of scholars, artists, writers, and composers the opportunity to participate in year-long residencies at the American Academy in Rome (AAR) where they are provided with the time and space to think and pursue their individual work as part of a unique and dynamic international community. There are a total of 28 American recipients of the prize this year, a group which also includes writers, visual artists, designers, architects, landscape architects, and scholars in the field of ancient, medieval, renaissance, early modern, and modern Italian studies. In addition, six Italian scholars were offered fellowships providing a residency at AAR. The Rome Prize winners and Italian Fellows benefit from access to all Academy resources and guidance from AAR’s network of advisors as well renowned artists and scholars living at AAR as Residents throughout the year.

(—from the press release)

Jonathan Berger and Christopher Trapani

Jonathan Berger (photo by Nicholas Jensen) and Christopher Trapani (photo by Esin Pektas ).

American Academy of Arts and Letters Announces Winners of Vocal Composition Prizes Totalling $90K

Posted on April 12, 2016 by - Headlines, Ledes

Kate Soper and Lewis Spratlan

The official seal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced the winners of the Charles Ives Opera Prize of $50,000 and the Virgil Thomson Award of $40,000. These two prizes are the largest that are given exclusively to American composers of vocal music.

The Charles Ives Opera Prize, made possible by the royalties to Charles Ives’s music, awards $35,000 to a composer and $15,000 to a librettist. It is being given this year to composer Lewis Spratlan and librettist James Maraniss for Life is a Dream. Though written between 1975 and 1978 on a commission from the New Haven Opera Theatre, the company never staged the opera because it folded in 1977 and it remained unperformed for decades. In January 2000, Dinosaur Annex gave two concert performances of the opera’s second act which resulted in that portion of the work receiving the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Another concert performance of the second act took place during New York City Opera’s VOX Festival in 2002, but the opera did not receive a fully staged performance until it was mounted by the Santa Fe Opera in 2010. [Click here to read Frank J. Oteri’s conversation with Lewis Spratlan a week after Life is a Dream Act II, Concert Version was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.]

The Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, which was endowed by the Virgil Thomson Foundation, has being given to composer and performer Kate Soper. Below are video highlights from Molly Sheridan’s conversation with Kate Soper published on NewMusicBox earlier this year.

Candidates for the Charles Ives Opera Prize and the Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music were nominated by the Academy’s composer members, and winners chosen by a special jury of members who met frequently between June 2015 and February 2016. The awards, which will be given at the annual Ceremonial in mid-May.

Celebrating New Music Awards Week

Posted on May 22, 2015 by - Headlines, Ledes

It has been a week of non-stop new music-related celebrations in New York City this week. Fresh from our own NewMusicBox LIVE and New Music USA Benefit Evening (thanks again to everyone who joined us), we now have time to report on some of the other highlights.

The top half of a BMI Student Composer Award plaque

On Monday, May 18, the BMI Foundation in collaboration with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) announced the winners of the 63rd annual BMI Student Composer Awards. The awards were presented by BMI President Mike O’Neill, BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick, and composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (who serves as the permanent chair of the Student Composer Awards) in a private ceremony at the JW Marriott Essex House Hotel, a lavish Art Deco space facing Central Park that was built in 1931. There were a total of nine awardees who received scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education totaling $20,000. There were also two honorable mentions, which has happened rarely in the history of these awards.

Mike O’Neill standa at a podium as Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Deirdre Chadwick sit to his left.

BMI President Mike O’Neill (right) welcomes attendees as composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (left) and BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick prepare to announce the award winners.

Two composers—Max Michael Grafe and Daniel Silliman—tied for the William Schuman Prize, which is awarded to the most outstanding score among the submissions. Grafe and Silliman chatted with us and each other about sharing this honor.

(Later in the week, Silliman’s award-winning work, strain for cello and orchestra, received an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award and Grafe received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. More on those award ceremonies below.)

More than 700 online applications were submitted to the competition from student composers throughout the Western Hemisphere in 2015. One of the 2015 winners, Tonia Ko, described her steadfastness in applying for this highly competitive prize. She told us that she has been submitting scores for ten consecutive years; it finally paid off.

Another awardee, Joseph Meland, described the genre-defying piece he submitted that fetched a prize, a composition for chamber orchestra and rock band; Meland feels equally comfortable in both idioms.

The jury members for the 2015 competition were Matthias Pintscher, José Serebrier, Joan Tower, and Barbara White. Alexandra du Bois, Hannah Lash, David Leisner, and Sean Shepherd served as preliminary judges. Below is a list of all the 2015 BMI Student Composer Awardees and their award-winning compositions.

Matthew Aaron Browne (b. 1988): Barnstorming Season for symphony orchestra
Max Michael Grafe (b. 1988): Kheir for clarinet and sinfonietta
Tonia Ko (b. 1988): Blue Skin of the Sea for solo marimba
Thomas Kotcheff (b. 1988): that in shadow or moonlight rises for mixed octet
Joseph Meland (b. 1993): FAUVE for chamber orchestra and rock band
Avik Sarkar (b. 2001): Mirror for chamber symphony
Daniel Silliman (b. 1993): strain for cello and orchestra
Patricia Wallinga (b. 1994): Dreams in War Time for tenor voice and piano
Benjamin P. Wenzelberg (b. 2000): Maelström for orchestra

Sarkar additionally received the Carlos Surinach Prize, an annual award given to the youngest winner in the competition. Imágenes de Guanajuato, a composition for cello and guitar by Luis M. Ruelas Romo, a 23-year-old student at New England Conservatory, and Prelude and Tricotee for violin and piano by Lauren Vandervelden, a 15-year-old private music student in Boise, Idaho, received honorable mention. (Sarkar and Vandervelden’s pieces also received Honorable Mention in the 2015 Morton Gould Awards.)

*

As they have done annually since 1942, academicians and award recipients sit on the stage of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Auditorium awaiting the commencement of the Ceremonial.

As they have done annually since 1942, academicians and award recipients sit on the stage of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Auditorium awaiting the commencement of the Ceremonial.

On Wednesday, May 20, the American Academy of Arts and Letters held its Ceremonial in the 730-seat auditorium of the second of the three landmarked Beaux Arts buildings it owns in northern Manhattan. An annual tradition since 1942 (the very first ceremonial took place in 1941 on the main stage of Carnegie Hall but it has taken place in their own 156th Street space since the year following), the event is one of the few times in American cultural life that visual artists, poets, novelists, and composers share a stage to honor achievements in a broad range of disciplines. And the reception following the Ceremonial, which—when it’s not raining, and sometimes even when it is (luckily for once it wasn’t!)—is one of the great spring parties in New York City, was a great opportunity for people across disciplines and generations to connect with one another.

The official seal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

The coming together of these disparate artistic practices felt even more meaningful during this year’s event because several of the awards in one discipline were announced by practitioners of other disciplines; this was perhaps most poignant when composer John Harbison presented a Gold Medal, the Academy’s highest honor, to poet Louise Glück, whose verse he has set to music three times thus far–in one of the movements of his Symphony No. 5 for soprano, baritone, and orchestra (2007), The Seven Ages for mezzo-soprano and Pierrot sextet (2008), and most recently in his 2013 composition Crossroads for soprano, oboe, and strings. Composer Yehudi Wyner, who is the academy’s current president, described how difficult it has been to build bridges between the artistic disciplines but stated that it is something the academy has been steadfast in its efforts to do.

Although most of the awards that were given out during the course of the Ceremonial have already been announced, it still feels like a complete surprise to Scott Johnson, who received one of this year’s two Goddard Lieberson Fellowships in Music. He even wore a tie for the occasion!

It is certainly far from anti-climactic for the winners to share the stage with their counterparts in other fields as well as with many of the 250 celebrated composers, writers, and visual artists who comprise the academy’s membership, as composer/pianist Billy Childs, one of four winners of a 2015 Arts and Letters Award in Music, told us:

Another one of the winners, Erin Gee, one of two 2015 recipients of the Charles Ives Fellowship, described how being amidst people involved in so many different kinds of creative endeavors is really inspirational:

Although Emily Cooley, one of six Charles Ives Scholarship recipients, was disappointed that two of her favorite authors, who are members of the academy, were unable to attend this year and so she did not have a chance to meet them:

These awards, however, are much more than an opportunity to hob-nob with luminaries. They also offer important financial support to emerging artists for whom finding a balance between creative work and economic sustenance is frequently a challenge, as Alex Mincek, recipient of the Benjamin H. Danks Award in Music, pointed out:

But aside from how valuable these awards are to emerging and mid-career composers, writers, and visual artists, both in terms of offering peer validation and significant monetary support, they are a rare opportunity to honor achievements from practitioners from many different generations. The academy’s most significant award for an éminence grise, the Gold Medal, two of which are given each year to people who have already been inducted among the 250 Academicians as an honorific, is one of the ways that the academy attempts to establish a continuity between emerging and established creators. In addition to awarding Louise Glück the Gold Medal for Poetry, the academy awarded a Gold Medal in Music to composer George Crumb, who at 85 remains a vital force. Even though he has already received so many important accolades throughout his illustrious career, Crumb seemed genuinely exuberant in response to the academy’s recognition:

*

The stage of Merkin Concert Hall with a screen projecting "2015 ASCAP Concert Music Awards" and some people in the audience.

The stage is set for the opening of the 2015 ASCAP Concert Music Awards at Merkin Concert Hall.

Finally, ASCAP presented its 16th annual Concert Music Awards on the stage of Merkin Concert Hall on Thursday, May 21. The centerpiece of the ceremony was the formal presentation—by composers Charles Fussell, James Matheson, Lisa Bielewa, and Paul Moravec along with ASCAP’s Cia Toscanini and Michael Spudic—of the 2015 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards which were announced in March (and can be found here). Brief excerpts from recordings of award-winning pieces by each of the composers who were present were played.

We spoke with several of the composers who were in attendance about their award-winning compositions. Scott Lee from Durham, North Carolina, and Paris Lavidis from New York City, described their very different approaches—Lee, in his Bottom Heavy for small ensemble, incorporates hip-hop grooves and other popular music elements whereas Lavidis explores extended techniques in what he describes as a “semi-tonal realm” in his String Quartet No. 2:

Anahita Abbasi, who was born in Iran and is now based in San Diego, described the structure of her composition Distorted Attitudes II/Labyrinth for flute (doubling on piccolo and bass flute), soprano saxophone, bassoon, two violins, cello, and doublebass:

Composer, singer-songwriter, and classical and jazz pianist Gabriel Zucker described spending more than a year creating Evergreen, an evening-length work which he also just recorded for future release:

After opening remarks from the afternoon’s master of ceremonies, composer, conductor and radio broadcast journalist Bill McGlaughlin, ASCAP’s new CEO Elizabeth Matthews, and John Titta, ASCAP’s executive vice president of creative services, composer Alex Shapiro presented J. P. Redmond with the Charlotte V. Bergen Scholarship, which has been awarded annually since 2006 to the top ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer age 18 or under. Redmond then went over to the piano to play the third movement of the work for which he received the award, Northeastern Sonata.

James Kendrick, president of Schott/European American Music, presented Brian Heim with this year’s Leo Kaplan Award, which has been given annually since 1995 to the composer of the score judged “most outstanding” in ASCAP’s Young Composer Awards. Heim’s award-winning piece, Two Portraits After Moby Dick, was inspired by the classic Herman Melville novel as he explained to us:

In addition to all of the awards presented to the emerging composers, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), now in their 10th anniversary season, was honored by composer and former Manhattan School of Music President Robert Sirota for “the virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which they perform and champion American composers.” Composer Timo Andres joined four of the members of ACME—Ben Russell and Caroline Shaw (violins), Caleb Burhans (viola), and ACME’s artistic director Clarice Jensen (cello)—for a performance of Andres’s Piano Quintet, another one of the Morton Gould award-winning pieces. We spoke briefly with cellist Jensen outside Merkin Hall:

Finally, Julia Wolfe was honored by retired ASCAP Vice President for Concert Music and current ASCAP consultant Frances Richard for being awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music as well as the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. Wolfe spoke with us briefly about how much she enjoys sharing the stage with all these young composers:

2015 Guggenheim Fellowship Awards Announced

Posted on April 15, 2015 by - Headlines, Ledes

The official logo of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1925 inscribed in a circle)

In its ninety-first competition for the United States and Canada, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded 173 Fellowships (including two joint Fellowships) to a diverse group of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of over 3,100 applicants. There are 11 composers among this year’s awardees:

Darcy James Argue
Matthew Barnson
Richard Carrick
Etienne Charles
Chihchun Chi-sun Lee
Steve Lehman
George E. Lewis
Andreia Pinto-Correia
Sean Shepherd
Rand Steiger
Amy Williams

Two additional music-related fellowships have also been awarded to music critic Alex Ross in the category of general non-fiction and University of Chicago-based music theorist Thomas Christensen in the field of music research. For a complete list of 2015 Guggenheim fellows, please visit the Guggenheim website.

ASCAP Announces 2015 Morton Gould Young Composer Award Winners

Posted on March 27, 2015 by - Headlines, Ledes

ASCAP Logo

ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams has announced the recipients of the 2015 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Selected from an application pool of more than 600 submissions, 28 young composers (plus an additional seven accorded honorable mention) will be recognized at the annual ASCAP Concert Music Awards at Merkin Concert Hall in New York on May 21, 2015. The award-winning composers share prizes of over $45,000, including the Leo Kaplan Award, in memory of the distinguished attorney who served as ASCAP special distribution advisor, the Charlotte V. Bergen Scholarship for a composer 18 years of age or younger, and grants from The ASCAP Foundation Jack and Amy Norworth Fund. Jack Norworth wrote such standards as “Shine On Harvest Moon” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Award recipients receive complimentary copies of Sibelius software, donated by Avid.

The 2015 Morton Gould Young Composer Award recipients are listed below with their current residence and place of birth and their award-winning compositions:

Anahita Abbasi (b. 1985) of San Diego, CA (Shiraz, Iran): Distorted Altitudes II/Labyrinth for ensemble [7′]
Timo Andres (b. 1985) of Brooklyn, NY (Palo Alto, CA): Piano Quintet [22′]
Katherine Balch (b. 1991) of New Haven, CT (San Diego, CA): Passacaglia for orchestra [12′]
Jason Thorpe Buchanan (b. 1986) of Hudson, NY (San Mateo, CA): Double Concerto for two horns and chamber orchestra [8′]
Yihan Chen (b. 1994) of Bloomington, IN (Changzhou, China): Immolation for eight voices and cello [8′]
Jaehyuck Choi (b. 1994) of New York, NY (Gwacheon, South Korea): Concerto for Violin and Orchestra [12′]
TJ Cole (b. 1993) of Philadelphia, PA (Athens, GA): Death of the Poet for string orchestra [11′]
Erin Graham (b. 1995) of Rochester, NY (Lewisburg, PA): Five Poems of Edward Lear for solo baritone, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello [15′]
Saad Haddad (b. 1992) of New York, NY (Los Angeles, CA): Shifting Sands for piano and electronics [8′]
Brian Heim (b. 1993) of New Haven, CT (Brownsville, MN): Two Portraits after Moby Dick for sinfonietta [11′]
David Hertzberg (b. 1990) of Philadelphia, PA (Santa Monica, CA): Méditation boréale for string quartet [16′]
Andrew Hsu (b. 1994) of Philadelphia, PA (Fremont, CA): String Quartet No. 1 “idée fixe” [20′]
Jay Hurst (b. 1989) of Bloomington, IN (Cape Canaveral, FL): Still Lives for orchestra [10′]
Evan Ingalls (b. 1992) of Bellingham, WA: Sandburg Poems for chamber orchestra and folk singer [14′]
Sun Bin Kim (b. 1989) of Ringwood, NJ (Seoul, South Korea): Fantasy Concerto (Visions in the Night Forest) for piano and small orchestra [13′]
Scott Lee (b. 1988) of Durham, NC (St. Petersburg, FL): Bottom Heavy for small ensemble [7′]
Austin O’Rourke (b. 1995) of Fredericksburg, VA (Culpeper, VA): Hazel Colored Nebula for piano 4-hands and electronics [7′]
Nina Shekhar (b. 1995) of Ann Arbor, MI (Northville, MI): Postcards for solo piano [11′]
Shen Yiwen (b. 1986) of New York, NY (Shanghai, China): Reminiscence and Oblivion for orchestra [15′]
Daniel Silliman (b. 1993) of Los Angeles, CA (Syracuse, NY): strain for cello and orchestra [10′]
Gabriella Smith (b. 1991) of Princeton, NJ (Berkeley, CA): Tumblebird Contrails for orchestra [12′]
Andrew Stock (b. 1994) of Cleveland, OH (St. Louis, MO): Ruled by Caprice for violin and prepared piano [6′]
Gabriel Zucker (b. 1990) of Brooklyn, NY (New York, NY): Evergreen (Cancelled World) for trumpet, three tenor saxophones, string trio, 2 singers, piano, and bass drums

The youngest ASCAP Foundation Composer Award recipients range in age from 13 to 16 and are listed by state of residence:

Emily Bear, age 13 (IL): Les Voyages for orchestra [7′]
Michael Jon Bennett, age 16 (NY): Mysterii for solo piano [14′]
J.P. Redmond, age 15 (NY): Northeastern Sonata for solo piano [17′]
Karalyn Schubring, age 15 (AZ): Song of the Ancients for euphonium and piano [5′]
Renata Vallecillo, age 15 (AZ): Bright Angel for violin and piano [5′]

The following composers received Honorable Mention:

Eleanor Bragg, age 18 (MA): Dream Sequence for solo piano [5′]
Scott Feiner, age 17 (NY): Toccatas and Interludes for piano four-hands [10′]
Tengku Irfan, age 16 (NY): Movement for Sting Quintet [4′]
Paris Lavidis, age 13 (NY): String Quartet No. 2 [24′]
Vaibhav Mohanty, age 16 (SC): Altitude for concert band [4′]
Avik Sarkar, age 14 (MA): Mirror for chamber orchestra [7′]
Lauren Vandervelden, age 15 (ID): Prelude and Tricotee for violin and piano [7′]

Morton Gould

Morton Gould (1913-1996), photo courtesy ASCAP

Established in 1979 with funding from the Jack and Amy Norworth Fund, The ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Awards program grants cash prizes to concert music composers up to 30 years of age whose works are selected through a juried national competition. These composers may be American citizens, permanent residents, or students possessing U.S. student visas. Morton Gould, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, served as president of ASCAP and The ASCAP Foundation from 1986-1994. Morton Gould, an eminent and versatile American composer, was a child prodigy whose first composition was published by G. Schirmer when he was only six years of age. To honor Gould’s lifelong commitment to encouraging young creators, the annual ASCAP Foundation Young Composer program was dedicated to his memory following his death in 1996. The ASCAP composer-judges for the 2015 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards were Lisa Bielawa, Steven Burke, Sebastian Currier, Daniel Felsenfeld, Robert Paterson, Alvin Singleton, and Aleksandra Vrebalov. More information about these awards is available on the ASCAP website.

[Updated with additional details on May 22, 2015.]

(—from the press release)

16 Composers Receive More Than $200K from American Academy of Arts and Letters

Posted on March 3, 2015 by - Headlines, Ledes

The official seal of the 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)

2015 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards Announced

Posted on February 6, 2015 by - Headlines, Ledes

ASCAP Logo which is a frame containing blue eighth-note in front of red and white stripes.

ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams has announced the recipients of the 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards. Established by The ASCAP Foundation in 2002 to encourage gifted jazz composers up to the age of 30, in 2012 the program was named in honor of composer, arranger and record producer Herb Alpert in recognition of The Herb Alpert Foundation’s multi-year financial commitment to support this unique program. The 26 recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 16 to 30, and are selected through a juried national competition. An additional three recipients received an honorable mention. The Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award Winners will be honored during ASCAP’s Jazz Wall of Fame event at ASCAP at a date to be announced.

The 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipients are listed with their age, current residence and place of origin:

Caio Afiune, 25 of Boston, MA (São Paulo. Brazil)
Quentin Angus, age 27 of New York, NY (Mount Pleasant, Australia)
Bryson Barnes, age 29 of New York, NY (Fairbanks, AK)
Bryn Bliska, age 22 of Cambridge, MA (Greenbrae, CA)
Lorenzo Carrano, age 27 of South Miami, FL (Naples, Italy)
Mike Conrad, age 26 of Waterloo, IA (Arlington Heights, IL)
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima, age 29 of Miami, FL (São Paulo. Brazil)
Nick Finzer, age 26 of New York, NY (Rochester, NY)
Jon Hatamiya, age 23 of Los Angeles, CA (Davis, CA)
Josh Johnson, age 25 of Los Angeles, CA (Takoma Park, MD)
Gene Knific, age 22 of Kalamazoo, MI
Pascal Le Boeuf, age 28 of New York, NY (Santa Cruz, CA)
Guy Mintus, age 23 of New York, NY (Hod Hasharon, Israel)
Adam Neely, age 26 of Brooklyn, NY (Silver Spring, MD)
Mark Ninmer, age 16 of Taylorville, IL
Scott Ninmer, age 26 of Alexandria, VA (Taylorville, IL)
Christopher Ott, age 27 of Brooklyn, NY (Kettering, OH)
Josh Plotner, age 22 of Boston, MA (Park Ridge, IL)
John Raymond, age 29 of Brooklyn, NY (Minneapolis, MN)
Michael Schreier, age 23 of Greeley, CO (Omaha, NE)
Erica Seguine, age 27 of Bloomfield, NJ (Albany, NY)
Jeremy Siskind, age 28 of Kalamazoo, MI (Santa Ana, CA)
David von Kampen, age 28 of Lincoln, NE (Farmington Hills, MI)
Marcus Wilcher, age 30 of Austin, TX (Los Angeles, CA)
Zac Zinger, age 26 of Woodside, NY (Pittsburgh, PA)
Christopher Zuar, age 27 of New York, NY

Composers receiving Honorable Mention this year are: Colleen Clark, age 26 of New York, NY (Norwich, CT); ArcoIris Sandoval, age 27 of New York, NY (Tucson, AZ); Drew Zaremba, age 23 of Denton, TX (Little Rock, AR). The ASCAP composer/judges for the 2015 competition were: Chuck Iwanusa, Ted Piltzecker, and Sachal Vasandani. Additional funding for this program is provided by The ASCAP Foundation Bart Howard Fund.

(—from the press release)