Melinda Wagner, keynote speaker and Ching-chu Hu, Host and President of the SCI-UM Chapter at the awards ceremony banquet Photo by Gina Genova

March Madness in Ann Arbor: A Report on the 2000 SCI Student Composer Conference

The Society of Composers, Inc. presented the 2nd Annual National Student Composers Conference "March Madness" March 17-18, 2000 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. This two-day series of concerts and presentations included a variety of works by 35 student composers from four continents. The guest composer and keynote speaker was Melinda Wagner, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Winners of the 1999 SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Commission Competition were Steven Ricks (University of Utah), Jennifer Furr (University of Michigan), and Chichun Chi-sun Lee (University of Michigan). New works by these composers were performed by the Phoenix Ensemble, Annunziata Tomaro, Music Director. Winners of the SCI/ASCAP Commission Competition 2000 were announced at the banquet in Ann Arbor. Commissionees for next year include Lansing D. McLoskey (Harvard University), Karim Al-Zand (Harvard), and Ching-chu Hu (University of Michigan). The 3rd Annual National Student Conference "Dawn of the Millennium" will be hosted by the SCI chapter at Indiana University, Bloomington, March 1-3, 2001. Inquiries may be sent to agc@indiana.edu.