National Music Council Honors Corigliano, Kamen, McPartland
On May 31, 2001, the National Music Council presented its American Eagle Awards to John Corigliano. Michael Kamen and Marian McPartland at the 20th Annual Awards Luncheon. Each year, the National Music Council presents the American Eagle Awards to individuals who have made significant contributions to American music and music education. The Awards Luncheon included… Read more »
Jun 01, 2001
Curtis Curtis-Smith
C. Curtis-Smith C. Curtis-Smith is a Washington-state native now teaching at Western Michigan University. He has received over a hundred grants, awards, and commissions in the course of his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitsky Prize at Tanglewood, and 23 consecutive Standard… Read more »
Jun 01, 2001
Age: Does It Matter?
D.C. Culbertson over the years Final photo by Mark Longaker, others unknown By D.C. Culbertson © 2001 NewMusicBox “Act your age!” “Age is nothing but a number.” “With age comes wisdom.” “He looks good for his age.” People talk a lot about age. They speak of golden years, midlife crises, middle-age spread, callow youth, being… Read more »
Jul 01, 2001
BMI Celebrates 2001 Student Composer Award-Winners
Winners of the 2001 BMI Student Composer Awards with BMI President Frances Preston and composer Milton Babbitt, Chairman of the Awards Photo by Gary Gershoff, courtesy of BMI Nine young composers, ranging in age from 15 to 26, have been named winners in the 49th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards. They were recognized for “superior… Read more »
Jul 01, 2001
Philadelphia Music Project Awards $794,000 in Grants
The Pottstown Symphony Orchestra will collaborate with the Landis and Co. Theatre of Magic The Philadelphia Music Project has awarded 18 grants totaling $794,000 this year to support area music projects. The awards range from $5,000 to $80,000 and seek to “engender excellence in performance, creativity in programming and provide recipients with the means to… Read more »
Aug 01, 2001
Playing American: California Symphony Marks Fifteen Years
California Symphony Music Director Barry Jekowsky Photo courtesy of Pavilion Associates The California Symphony is celebrating its 15th anniversary this season by highlighting the performers and programs responsible for its success. But no one is likely more responsible for that success than founding Music Director Barry Jekowsky. His longstanding commitment to presenting American music and… Read more »
Sep 01, 2001
Commissioning Music/USA Supports 25 New Works
Meredith Monk is commissioned to write a new opera/musical theater productionPhoto by K. Scott S Meet The Composer‘s Commissioning Music/USA 2001 program has announced $290,750 in grants to support the creation of new musical works. Thirty-one composers will team up with a wide range of performing/presenting organizations across the country to create 25 innovative pieces.… Read more »
Sep 01, 2001
Dirty Dozens: A HyperHistory of Serialism
James Reel Originally, Retrograded, Inverted, and Retrograded & Inverted Serial permutations by Amanda MacBlane A fad diet called serialism swept the American academy some 40 years ago. It promised to shed the fat of Romanticism, loosen the gristle of Futurism, tone the flab of Impressionism. Serialism was scientific, developed and refined by the leading minds… Read more »
Dec 01, 2001
Copying Assistance Program Awards $20,300 to Composers
Sixteen American composers have been awarded grants totaling $20,300 through the American Music Center‘s Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program (CAP). The awards go directly to the composers, ranging in age from 26 to 92, to assist in the production of materials for the premiere performance of their proposed large-scale work (four or more performers).… Read more »
Dec 01, 2001
Kenneth Frazelle Awarded $10,000 Barlow Prize; Eight Others Receive Commissions
Barlow Endowment bestows $50,000 in commissions Interview with Kenneth Frazelle Nine commissions have been awarded by The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University. North Carolina composer Kenneth Frazelle has won the largest of these—the Barlow Prize. This year the $10,000 commission is for a sacred song cycle scheduled for premiere by Erie… Read more »
Jan 01, 2002
Third Season of Music Alive – Composers and Orchestras Together Announced
Ten American composers and seven orchestras are teaming up for the third round of Music Alive – Composers and Orchestras Together residencies during the 2002-03 season. A collaboration between Meet The Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League, the program pairs orchestras with composers who serve as advocates for contemporary music both within the organization… Read more »
Jan 10, 2002
Boom Times for the Art Song: A HyperHistory of Poetry and Music
Johanna Keller “New York has always been a hotbed of new things going on and right now it’s the song. I think we’re having a little golden age here. Or maybe it’s a big golden age!” -Tobias Picker In case you haven’t heard, there is an art song renaissance happening in New York City. From… Read more »
Feb 01, 2002
OBITUARY: Ronald Freed, 64, Head of European American Music Distributors
Ronald Freed Photo courtesy ASCAP Ronald Freed, head of European American Music Distributors and noted supporter of American composers, died February 20, after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 64. Tom Broido, President of the Theodore Presser Company and the Music Publishers’ Association of the U.S. (a position Freed also held at one point), expressed… Read more »
Feb 25, 2002
NEWS IN BRIEF: 3/8/02
NSO to South Dakota for residency, Slatkin extends contract; Minnesota Orch. reads new works; New York magazine highlights new music.
Mar 08, 2002
Rouse and Schwantner Elected to American Academy
Composers Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner have been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Hollander, Secretary of the academy, will induct them, along with three new artists and four new writers, at the academy’s annual Ceremonial in May. Reached shortly after the announcement and still reeling from his recent… Read more »
Mar 13, 2002
Koussevitzky Foundations Commission Ten
Sometimes when awards are announced, it’s easy to be numbed by the list of names and numbers and overlook what they mean for the composer and society–that a new piece of music will be written and heard that otherwise might never have seen daylight. Jim Mobberley, one of the nine composers commissioned to write new… Read more »
Apr 18, 2002
You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard The first orchestral music recording I ever bought was a used flea market LP of the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, a great American classic by an émigré who believed that musical composition could not be taught. But I, like many others, have learned so much from that piece.… Read more »
May 01, 2002
BMI Student Composers Honored at 50th Annual Awards Presentation
Charles Wuorinen and Steven Mackey reminisce about winning their own Student Composer Awards Awards are great at any age, but few would argue that the practical aspect of a cash prize often has an especially powerful impact on a young career. “Not only can I pay my rent for the summer, but I bought a… Read more »
Jun 18, 2002
A Feat Beyond Certainty: American Composer-Choreographer Relationships
The Feet of Jennifer Dunning Photo by Melissa Richard The relationship of composer to choreographer had its certainties late in the 19th century. Ballet told stories. Both composer and choreographer had only to tell those stories of enchanted maidens, death-dealing vampires, and hapless princes with dependable dance rhythms and sufficient atmosphere. There were the Salieris,… Read more »
