Awards and Prizes: Recent Winners

Awards and Prizes: Recent Winners

2004 Classical Recording Foundation Awards; Ohio Composer Orianna Webb Wins Sackler Prize; Steve Cohen Recognized for Juggernaut; Copland House Announces Residencies, 2004 Sylvia Goldstein Award to Coleman and Grant.

Written By

NewMusicBox Staff

2004 Classical Recording Foundation Awards

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The third annual Classical Recording Foundation Awards have been announced, and two of the five awards were granted to facilitate the release of American music.

Paul Moravec was honored as Composer of the Year. His award will enable the recording and production of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Tempest Fantasy. This world premiere recording was made with musicians for whom piece was written. Arabesque will be releasing this disc in November 2004.

One of two Foundation Awards was presented to the Harmonie Ensemble to underwrite the recording and production of works by Aaron Copland. The disc includes two premiere recordings of Copland works—Arturo Toscanini’s piano transcription of El Salon Mexico and Two Ballads for Violin and Piano—as well as Appalachian Spring and Music for Theatre. Bridge Records released this disc in May 2004.

The Classical Recording Foundation (CRF) was established by Grammy-winning classical producer and engineer Adam Abeshouse, who held the belief that “the economic climate for most classical recording artists was bleak, and therefore many great projects that deserved to be preserved would not be recorded…classical music recording should be supported through philanthropy, following the same model as most live performance organizations.”

Ohio Composer Orianna Webb Wins Sackler Prize

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Orianna Webb

Orianna Webb, acting composition department head at the Cleveland Institute of Music, has received the 2004 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize. The prize, sponsored by the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts, carries a $20,000 award and is the largest monetary award of its kind from a public institution of higher learning. The annual competition supports and promotes aspiring composers and the performance of their works.

The prize will allow Webb to develop a chamber orchestra work for strings, winds, and brass scheduled for performance in March at the university.

Webb, a native of Akron, holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and University of Chicago.

Steve Cohen Recognized for Juggernaut

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Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen has won the 2004 Composer’s Award of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Museum in the Community (Hurricane, WV). The award, jointly sponsored by the orchestra and the museum, was first given in 1988 to encourage, recognize, and promote composers. This year’s award was for a full orchestral composition and Cohen’s work, Juggernaut, will receive its world premiere at the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra on November 12, 2004.

Copland House Announces Residencies; 2004 Sylvia Goldstein Award to Coleman and Grant

The Copland House has announced the recipients of the all-expenses-paid 2004 residencies during which gifted, emerging, or mid-career American composers are invited to live and work for several weeks at the renowned composer’s historic home. They are: Eric Chasalow, Brian Fennelly, Richard Festinger, Marcus Karl Maroney, Ronald Keith Parks, Dan Visconti, Beth Wiemann, and Ken Ueno. A jury that included Daron Hagen, Jennifer Higdon, Lee Hyla, and Lowell Liebermann made the selection from among nearly 90 applications.

The 2004 Sylvia Goldstein Award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize, was shared by Dan Coleman (L’alma respira for orchestra) and James Grant (Such Was the War for baritone, chorus, and orchestra). Jurors Martin Bresnick, Bright Sheng, and Joan Tower selected the winning works. The award “is intended to help support the performance, recording, or publication of an outstanding new work each year written by a resident composer at least in part at Copland House.”

The Copland House has also announced the creation of the Borromeo String Quartet Award for resident composers. Each year the quartet will select a string quartet written by a Copland House resident for inclusion in the ensemble’s programs in the U.S. and abroad.