Tag: composer awards

Corigliano and Over 130 Other Music Creators Honored at ASCAP Foundation Awards

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Frank J. Oteri - Headlines, Ledes

Corigliano in Purple Jacket with several people in the background in JALC's Appel Room

John Corigliano shortly after the close of the 2014 ASCAP Foundation Awards Ceremony. (Guitarist Sharon Isbin and ASCAP’s Fran Richard can be seen in the background to Corigliano’s left and right respectively.) Photo by FJO.

John Corigliano has been awarded the first-ever ASCAP Foundation Masters Award. ASCAP President Paul Williams’s presentation of the award to Corigliano, which was followed by a performance of his short string quartet Snapshot Circa 1909 by the Aeolus Quartet, was the culmination of the ASCAP Foundation’s 19th Annual Awards Ceremony, which was held on December 10 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s recently renamed Appel Room (formerly the Allen Room) and Ertegun Atrium in the Time Warner Building in New York City. Over 130 honorees—spanning composers writing for symphony orchestra and chamber ensembles, jazz groups, musical theatre, film and television, as well as rock, R&B, and country songwriters—were celebrated during the three-hour event. Due to time considerations many of this year’s awards were distributed in advance of the formal ceremony, but all of the winners’ names were projected during the event and also appeared in the official program, among them the recipients of the 2014 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards and Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards who had been additionally honored in ceremonies earlier this year. (A complete list of all the 2014 winners can be found here.)
Corigliano has had just about every major accolade a composer can receive—a Pulitzer Prize (for his Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra), a Grawemeyer Award (for his Symphony No. 1 which he wrote in response to the AIDS epidemic during his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s first composer-in-residence), an Oscar (for his score for the film The Red Violin), and three Grammys (for Symphony No. 1, his String Quartet, and Mr. Tambourine Man, a song-cycle which features newly composed music to lyrics for even classic Bob Dylan songs), as well as a commission from the Metropolitan Opera (for The Ghosts of Versailles which had been the Met’s first commission in more than two decades). Yet it was clear from his demeanor on stage as well as his comments that he was deeply moved and humbled to receive this award. “I might live to be 100 and be an antique but I never thought I’d be a master,” Corigliano opined. The audience responded with a standing ovation.

Corigliano talking with Williams onstage in JALC's Appel Room with a backdrop projection featuring a photo of Corigliano

Paul Williams (right) presenting the ASCAP Foundation Masters Award to John Corigliano. Photo by Michael Spudic of ASCAP.

Esteban Castro, a 12-year-old jazz composer and pianist who was one of this year’s Alpert winners, wowed the ceremony’s attendees in a performance with his trio. Equally impressive was a performance by The JT Project, this year’s recipients of the “Reach Out and Touch” Award in honor of Nick Ashford, which was presented by the late songwriter’s life and artistic partner Valerie Simpson. At first the group’s co-leader Jacob Webb attempted to perform on his electronic keyboard, but after being unable to coax any sound out of it (the technicians had not completely plugged in one of the cables), he moved over to the piano out of which he coaxed an Alice Coltrane-like relentless stream of tremolos inspiring saxophonist and co-leader Todd Schefflin to veer from more mainstream David Sanborn-sounding material to passionate riffs worthy of John Coltrane during his final freeform years as bassist Ross Alston maintained a steady groove and Nathan Webb fashioned a throbbing yet melodic counterpoint on the drums. Steven Lutvak, the 2014 Richard Rodgers New Horizons Awardee, offered some comic relief accompanying cast members Catherine Walker, Lisa O’Hara, and Bryce Pinkham from the piano in a trio from his humorous 2014 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Their performance was a testimony to their dedication to Lutvak and his score—they had just performed a matinee and needed to get back to the theatre for an additional performance later in the evening.

Photo by Scott Wintrow/Gamut Photos, courtesy ASCAP.

Jacob Webb (at the piano) and Todd Schefflin (saxophone) of the JT Project performing at the 2014 ASCAP Foundation Awards Ceremony. Photo by Scott Wintrow/Gamut Photos, courtesy ASCAP.

Among the other award winners honored were composer Rona Siddiqui to whom Stephen Schwartz presented the Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award for her musical One Good Day written with lyricist Liz Suggs (who could not be present), composer Deborah Abramson and lyricist Amanda Yesnowitz who received the 2014 Jamie deRoy & Friends Award (presented by deRoy) for their ongoing musical theater collaborations.

Rupert Holmes (right) receiving the 2014 ASCAP Foundation George M. Cohan Award made possible by the Friars Foundation. The award presenter is Jennifer Ross, great-granddaughter of Cohan. Photo by Scott Wintrow/Gamut Photos, courtesy ASCAP.

2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Cerrone was presented by Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie Bernstein with the ASCAP Foundation Leonard Bernstein Award. (An additional Bernstein honoree, Arlington, Virginia-born and currently Aberdeen, Scotland-based Sarah Rimkus, could not be present to receive her award.) Rupert Holmes, recipient of the 2014 George M. Cohan Award (which was presented to him by Cohan’s great-granddaughter Jennifer Ross), brought down the house when he acknowledged that despite being the first person ever to receive the Tony Award for best music, best lyrics, and best book (for his Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood), as well as arranging and conducting platinum albums for Barbra Streisand and writing three highly acclaimed novels (including The McMasters Guide to Homicide: Murder Your Employer), most people still think of him first and foremost for the Billboard No. 1 single that spanned two decades (because, he pointed out, it was on top of the chart in both December 1979 and January 1980)—“The Pina Colada Song,” which of course he then performed.

2014 deRoy Awardees Deborah Abramson (left) and Amanda Yesnowitz (right) with Jamie deRoy (center). Photo by Scott Wintrow/Gamut Photos, courtesy ASCAP.

20 Composers Honored at American Academy Ceremonial

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Frank J. Oteri - Headlines, Ledes

Murakami's Induction to the Amreican Academy of Arts and Letters

Nearly every year at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, new members are inducted in from the fields of art, literature, and music. In addition, the academy also inducts honorary members–either Americans working in fields outside of art, literature, and music or foreign honorary members working in those fields. Among the 2014 honorary inductees were chef Alice Waters, who unfortunately could not attend, and the iconic Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami pictured here during his induction. (Sorry for the blurry photo, it was as close as I was able to get.) Unfortunately I was unable to find Murakami during the reception; I’m a huge fan–FJO

During the 2014 American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial, held on May 21, 2014, eighteen composers received awards in music totaling over $200,000. In addition, during the two-hour ceremony, composers David Lang and Alvin Singleton were officially inducted as members of the academy. As per tradition, the official ceremony was followed by a reception plus the official opening of the academy’s art exhibition (devoted to the work of the year’s awardees and inductees).

Joan Tower presented the four 2014 Arts and Letters Awards in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges the composer who has arrived at his or her own voice. The cash award of $7500 is supplemented by an additional $7500 grant to help fund a recording of the composer’s work. The 2014 awardees are: Kati Agócs, Daron Hagen, Anthony Korf, and Marjorie Merryman.

Mario Davidovsky presented the Walter Hinrichsen Award to Scott Wheeler. The Hinrichson Award, established by the C. F. Peters Corporation in 1984, funds the publication of a work by a gifted composer. (Previous recipients of the award include Victoria Bond, Reena Esmail, Richard Festinger, Mark Gustavson, Jing Jing Luo, Louis Karchin, Paula Matthusen, Kurt Rohde, and Rand Steiger.) Tobias Picker presented the $10,000 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music, for an exceptional mid-career composer, to Mikael Karlsson.

Stephen Hartke presented the two Goddard Lieberson Fellowships of $15,000 each to A. J. McCaffrey and Ju Ri Seo. The fellowship, given to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts, is named in honor of composer Goddard Lieberson (1911-1977) who served as president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1951. It was endowed in 1978 by the CBS Foundation.
In 1970, composer Charles Ives’s widow, Harmony Ives, bequeathed to the academy the royalties of Charles Ives’s music, which has enabled the academy to annually give two Ives Fellowships, as well as six Ives Scholarships. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich presented the two Charles Ives Fellowships of $15,000 each to Nathan Shields and Dan Tepfer. Martin Bresnick presented the six $7500 Charles Ives Scholarships for composition students of great promise to William David Cooper, David Kirkland Garner, Bálint Karosi, Jeremy Podgursky, Daniel Schlosberg, and Nina C. Young.

The ongoing importance of Charles Ives’s legacy to the academy was acknowledged during the afternoon in other ways as well. Prior to the commencement of the ceremonial, Daniel Beckwith played a selection of Charles Ives’s compositions on the academy’s Skinner organ. (Though all-too-rarely performed nowadays, Ives wrote a considerable amount of organ music and, since he served as a church organist and performed his own music, these works are among the few compositions of his which were played during his lifetime. Surprisingly the first complete critical edition of all of Ives’s organ works was only published in 2012.) More significantly, the academy has reconstructed Ives’s personal compositional studio on its premises and opened the room for public viewing following the ceremonial.

The American Academy of Arts and Letters now devotes a room on its premises to Charles Ives’s composition studio, reconstructed as it was on the day he died.

Tania León presented the Richard Rodgers Award in Musical Theater to composer Matt Gould and librettist Griffin Matthews to fund a production of their musical Witness Uganda. The Richard Rodgers Awards were created and endowed by academy-member composer Richard Rodgers in 1978 for the development of the musical theater. These awards subsidize full productions, studio productions, and staged readings by nonprofit theaters in New York City of works by composers and writers who are not already established in this field. The winners are selected by a jury that includes both American Academy of Arts and Letters members and non-members. The Richard Rodgers Awards are the only awards for which the academy accepts applications.

Finally, a new award was unveiled during the 2014 ceremonial–the Virgil Thomson Award for Vocal Music. Poet and librettist J. D. McClatchy presented the inaugural award to Lowell Liebermann. The $40,000 award, endowed by the Virgil Thomson Foundation and administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, recognizes an American composer of vocal works. Liebermann was among five finalists selected from composers nominated by members of the academy. Their work was studied closely over the course of several months by a special jury comprised of McClatchy and composers David Del Tredici, Carlisle Floyd, Ezra Laderman, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

Aside from the Rodgers and Thomson awards, candidates for the music awards were nominated by the 250 members of the academy and the winners were selected by a committee of academy members: Joan Tower (chair), Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Mario Davidovsky, John Harbison, Stephen Hartke, Tania León, and Tobias Picker.
A final reflection on the day from 2014 Ives Scholarship recipient Daniel Schlosberg:

2014 BMI Student Composer Awards Announced

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Frank J. Oteri - Headlines, Ledes

BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick Introduces the 2014 BMI Student Composer Awards

Eight young composers, aged 14 to 27, have been named winners of the 62nd annual BMI Student Composer Awards presented by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), in collaboration with the BMI Foundation. Composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, permanent chair of the BMI Student Composer Awards, along with BMI President Del Bryant, and BMI Foundation President Deidre Chadwick announced the decisions of the jury and presented the awards at a reception held at the Grand Salon in the J. W. Marriott Essex House Hotel in New York City.

Each year, the William Schuman Prize is awarded to the composer of the work deemed the most outstanding in the competition; this year the result was a tie between two composers—Michael Boyman and Daniel Temkin—both of whose award-winning works are for orchestra. Temkin previously received a BMI Student Composer Award in 2012 for Butterflies and Dragons, a composition scored for “Pierrot” plus percussion chamber ensemble.

Two of the other 2014 winners, Chris Rogerson and Phil Taylor, have also been previous award recipients, but the other five–Michael Boyman, Saad Nadim Haddad, Paul Eddison Lewis, Grant Luhmann, and Benjamin P. Wenzelberg—are first time recipients. Wenzelberg, aged 14 and a student at the Julliard School Pre-College Division, additionally received the Carlos Surinach Prize, which is annually given to the youngest award-winner in the competition.

Below is a complete list of the 2014 award winners and their award-winning compositions:

Michael Boyman (b. 1989): Tightrope Walker for orchestra
Saad Nadim Haddad (b. 1992): Mai for string quartet and electronics
Paul Eddison Lewis (b. 1987): The Ninth Gate for contrabass quartet
Grant Luhmann (b. 1994): The Triumvirate for percussion trio
Chris Rogerson (b. 1988): String Quartet No. 2
Phil Taylor (b. 1989): Chiaroscuro for chamber orchestra
Daniel Temkin (b. 1986): From Distant Dreams for orchestra
Benjamin P. Wenzelberg (b. 2000): Midnight Tides for violin, cello, and piano
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (left) announces the first of the alphabetically distributed awards, to Michael Boyman (right) who receives the plaque from BMI President Del Bryant.
The award winners receive scholarship grants to be applied to their musical education; awards this year totaled $20,000. In 2014, more than 300 manuscripts were submitted to the competition from applicants throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged anonymously. The jury members for the 2014 competition were Kristin Kuster, Ingram Marshall, Bernard Rands, and Kevin Puts. The preliminary judges were Alexandra DuBois, David Fulmer, Shafer Mahoney, and Sean Shepherd. Since 1951, BMI, in collaboration with the BMI Foundation, has awarded nearly 600 grants to young composers.

OPERA America Awards $100K to 8 Female Opera Composers

Posted on April 2, 2014 by NewMusicBox Staff - Headlines, Ledes

OPERA America has announced the first round of recipients of its new program, Opera Grants for Female Composers. From among the 112 eligible applicants, an independent adjudication panel selected eight composers. The recipients have each been awarded $12,500 to support the development of their compositions which are listed below.

Anna Clyne: As Sudden Shut
Michelle DiBucci: Charlotte Salomon: Der Tod und die Malerin (Death and the Painter)
Laura Kaminsky: As One
Kristin Kuster: Old Presque Isle
Anne LeBaron: Psyche & Delia
Fang Man: Golden Lily
Sheila Silver: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Luna Pearl Woolf: THE PILLAR
OPERA America has awarded nearly $13 million over 25 years to Professional Company Members in support of new American operas, but fewer than 5 percent of the organization’s grants supporting repertoire development have been awarded to works by female composers. Opera Grants for Female Composers provide support for the development of new operas by women, both directly to individual composers and to opera companies producing their work, advancing the important objective to increase diversity across the field.

Opera Grants for Female Composers, made possible through the generosity of The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, is a two-year project. In this first year, Discovery Grants identify, support and help develop the work of female composers writing for the operatic medium, raising their visibility and promoting awareness of their compositions. In addition to financial assistance, grant recipients will be introduced to leaders in the field through a feature in Opera America Magazine, and at future New Works Forum meetings and annual conferences. Supported works will be considered for presentation as part of the New Works Forum in January 2015 and New Works Samplers at future annual conferences. The second year of the Opera Grants for Female Composers program will focus on Commissioning Grants. These awards will help support the commissioning and production of works by talented women. Details for this segment of the program will be announced later in 2014. The independent adjudication panelists for the Discovery Grant cycle included vocal coach-consultant Susan Ashbaker, composer Douglas Cuomo, director Robin Guarino, composer David T. Little, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer, and composer/librettist Gene Scheer.

(from the press release)

Narong Prangcharoen Wins $15K 2013 Barlow Prize

Posted on August 30, 2013 by NewMusicBox Staff - Headlines, Ledes

Narong Prangcharoen

The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University has awarded Narong Prangcharoen the $15,000 2013 Barlow Prize to compose a major new work for wind ensemble. David Dzubay of Bloomington, Indiana, was granted the distinction of honorable mention in this competition.

Thailand-born and Kansas City-based Narong Prangcharoen (b. 1973) was one of the seven participants in the 2010 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the winner of both the American Composers Orchestra’s 2011 Annual Underwood Commission and 2011 Audience Choice Award, and the recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship. His three year composer residency with the Pacific Symphony is one of five creative partnerships currently being supported through Music Alive, a program jointly administered by New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. Prangcharoen has a DMA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City where his primary teacher was Chen Yi. His mentors have included Paul Chihara, Zhou Long, and Augusta Read Thomas. He currently teaches in the Community Music and Dance Academy of the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri (Kansas City). His large ensemble scores are available from the Theodore Presser Company, which signed him to their roster of published composers earlier this year, and two CDs devoted exclusively to Prangcharoen’s music have been released on Albany Records: Phenomenon (2009) and Mantras (2012).
There were a total of 240 composer applications from around the world submitted for consideration for the 2013 Barlow Prize. In addition, there were 135 applications for the Barlow Endowment’s General and LDS (Latter-day Saints) commissioning programs, out of which nine composer received grants totalling $60,000 to write works for the following ensembles and musicians: Chen Yi (Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra); Huck Hodge (Divertimento Ensemble); Kurt Rohde (cellist Michelle Kesler); Diana Soh (Duo Hevans); Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (Yarn/Wire), Schuyler Tsuda (ECCE); Daniel Bradshaw (Montana State University Symphony); Lansing McLoskey (ensemberlino vocale); and Benjamin Taylor (pianist Keith Kirchoff). Benjamin Taylor’s LDS commission has support from the estate of Jeanette Barlow Dieman.

The judging panel for the above awards included the Endowment’s Board of Advisors: Ethan Wickman, Todd Coleman, Stacy Garrop, Christian Asplund, and James Mobberley. Steve Roens served as a guest judge in most of the deliberations. Michael Colburn, Donald Peterson, and Richard Clary represented the United States Marine Band, Brigham Young University’s Wind Symphony, and Florida State University’s Wind Orchestra respectively in selecting the Barlow Prize. These ensembles form the Endowment’s performing consortium, which will premiere the new work in 2015.

The Barlow Endowment also sponsored a 2013 special Chinese competition open to all Chinese composers. Zheng Yang emerged as the winner of that $10,000 competition. Yang will receive a commission to compose a 10-12 minute work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion that will be premiered at the 2014 Beijing Modern Music Festival (BMMF). The judging committee also awarded an honorable mention to Stephen Yip for this competition. Ye Xiaogang of the BMMF and Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing joined forces with Barlow’s Board of Advisors in administering and judging this competition.
Since 1985 a composer has been awarded a Barlow Prize to compose a work for a specific instrumentation which changes every year. Past recipients of the prize include Daron Hagen, Harold Meltzer, Kevin Puts, David Rakowski, Chris Theophanidis, Dan Visconti, and Zhou Long, as well as international composers Judith Bingham (United Kingdom), Maija Einfelde (Latvia), and Otto Ketting (Netherlands). Past commissions have included works for string quartet, solo piano, wind quintet, and unaccompanied chorus. For the 2013 Barlow Prize, the commission fee was raised to $15,000. Next year’s Barlow Prize will feature a new work for saxophone quartet.

(from the press release)

Harbison Receives BSO’s Horblit Award

Posted on July 8, 2013 by NewMusicBox Staff - Headlines, Ledes

John Harbison

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has presented John Harbison with the Mark M. Horblit “Merit Award” for distinguished composition by an American composer. The award was created in 1947 by the late Boston attorney Mark M. Horblit to, in his own words, “foster and promote the writing of symphonic compositions by composers resident in the United States…in recognition of meritorious work in that field.” Harbison is the 22nd recipient of the award, which includes a cash prize of $5,000. A formal award ceremony with Harbision will take place this fall in Boston. The Horblit Award was first presented to Aaron Copland in 1947 and, most recently, to Elliott Carter in 2007. Carter, who had previously been given the award in 1988, has been the only composer to receive the award twice. (A complete list of recipients appears below.)

In connection with the BSO’s presentation of the Horblit Award to John Harbision, the orchestra will release the composer’s six symphonies as digital downloads, available on their website beginning July 9. They will be available on Amazon and iTunes at a later date. These live recordings of all six symphonies were made during the BSO’s 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons. The recordings will be available in both mp3 and hi-def audio formats. Individual movements, entire symphonies, or albums containing two symphonies each can be purchased for different prices; the price for individual movements–which ranges from $0.89 to $3.59–depends on format and duration. In addition, on Thursday, July 11, at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra and chorus of Boston-based Emmanuel Music come to Ozawa Hall for John Harbison’s opera The Great Gatsby.

Horblit Award Recipients
1947 Aaron Copland
1948 Walter Piston
1949 Leonard Bernstein
1952 Lukas Foss
1953 Leo Smit
1954 Andrew Imbrie
1955 Ross Lee Finney
1958 Easley Blackwood
1961 Alexei Haieff
1963 Seymour Shifrin
1964 William Sydeman
1966 Gunther Schuller
1968 John Huggler
1977 Roger Sessions
1980 William Schuman
1983 Earl Kim
1985 Leon Kirchner
1987 Donald Martino
1992 Ned Rorem
1993 John Corigliano
2008 Elliott Carter
2013 John Harbison

—from the press release

A.J. McCaffrey Wins 2013 ACO Underwood Commission

Posted on June 27, 2013 by NewMusicBox Staff - Headlines, Ledes

A.J. McCaffrey

A.J. McCaffrey has been named the winner of the American Composers Orchestra’s 2013 Underwood Commission, bringing him a $15,000 commission to compose a work that will be premiered by ACO during the 2014-2015 season. McCaffrey was chosen from six finalist composers whose pieces were read by the orchestra during its 22nd Underwood New Music Readings on April 8 and 9, 2013 which included McCaffrey’s piece Thank You for Waiting. (You can hear the ACO reading of Thank You for Waiting on their website.)
A.J. McCaffrey (b. 1973) is a songwriter and a composer of instrumental, vocal, and electronic music. With a background and interest in theater, fine arts, and literature, and an upbringing that fostered a love for a wide variety of musical styles, he writes music that strives to tell a story. McCaffrey’s music has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. His works have been performed by the New Fromm Players, Radius Ensemble, Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, and members of the Chiara Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival and School, he has been a featured composer on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s The Next Next series, Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music, and the New Gallery Concert Series. McCaffrey holds degrees in music composition from Rice University, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and the University of Southern California, and has studied with Richard Lavenda, James MacMillan, Donald Crockett, and Stephen Hartke. A passionate educator, he is an instructor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program and the Longy School of Music at Bard College’s Masters of Arts in Teaching Music.

“A.J.’s orchestral writing impresses at every level—the clarity of his sonic concept, the deft handling of often viscerally dense counterpoint, and above all, the energy that he gets from the ensemble through his orchestrational approach,” said Underwood New Music Readings mentor composer Christopher Theofanidis. Joan Tower, also a mentor composer this year, added, “A.J. McCaffrey is a composer with extraordinary chops. I am hoping his newly commissioned work will push the envelope further by taking musical risks that could create a formidable piece for orchestra.” Mentor composer and ACO Artistic Advisor Laureate Robert Beaser praised A.J. as well, saying, “A.J. is a composer who combines prodigious craft with a quirky sensibility. He produces works in a variety of styles—always surprising and arresting.”
Upon winning the Underwood commission, A.J. McCaffrey said, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with ACO. I witnessed first-hand how well they tackle new music during the Readings this past spring, and I cannot wait to begin composing for them. It is overwhelming to be chosen—ACO had a fabulous group of pieces and composers to choose from and I am humbled to have been selected.”

In addition, for the fourth year, audience members at the Underwood New Music Readings had a chance to make their voices heard through the Audience Choice Award. The winner this year was composer Nina Young (b. 1984), for her piece Remnants. As the winner, Nina was commissioned to compose an original mobile phone ringtone which is available to everyone who voted, free of charge.

The 22nd Underwood New Music Readings were held under the direction of ACO’s Artistic Director, composer Robert Beaser, and were led by ACO Music Director George Manahan, with mentor composers Christopher Theofanidis and Joan Tower. The conductor, mentor composers, and principal players from ACO provided critical feedback to each of the participants during and after the sessions. In addition to the readings, the composer participants took part in workshops and one-on-one sessions with industry professionals. This year’s readings attracted over 130 submissions from emerging composers around the country. In addition to McCaffrey and Young, the selected participants were Jonathan Blumhofer (b. 1979), Louis Chiappetta (b.1989), Joshua Groffman (b. 1984), and Saad N. Haddad (b. 1992).

(—from the press release)

NewMusicBox Staff

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