2010 Grammy Award Highlights
Folks who follow the vagaries of the music business already know that the 52nd annual Grammy Awards ceremony occurred last night in Los Angeles. But, as has been the case for several years now, many of the awards deemed of "niche" interest were not part of the nationally televised broadcast. So while Taylor Swift has been all over the news today for winning the highly coveted Album of the Year award, attention should also be paid to the fact that Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto has received the 2010 Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In addition, Arts Nova Copenhagen and Theatre of Voices won Best Small Ensemble Performance for their performance of David Lang's Pulitzer-winning piece The Little Match Girl Passion, while Best Surround Sound Album went to Transmigration, featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Robert Spano in performances of works by Higdon, Samuel Barber, John Corigliano, and John Adams. Jazz awardees include Terence Blanchard, Kurt Elling, Chick Corea, the late Joe Zawinul, and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. read more
Published: 2/1/2010

Brad Mehldau Named Carnegie Debs Composer's Chair

Brad Mehldau Photo courtesy Carnegie Hall

Jazz composer-pianist Brad Mehldau has been appointed to hold the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall for the 2010-2011 season; he is the first jazz composer to ever be named to this position. Originally a three-season position, the Debs Chair was restructured in 2007 as a single year appointment in order to focus on a greater variety of composers. Highlights of Meldau's activities there during 2010-2011 will include a solo piano performance, a song recital featuring his music as well as a broad range of old and new repertoire by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter accompanied by Mehdau, and the New York premiere of Highway Rider, his evening-length composition for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra featuring Mehldau and frequent collaborators saxophonist Josh Redman, bassist Larry Grenadier, and percussionists Jeff Ballard and Matt Chamberlain, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Scott Yoo. (The same forces have recorded the work on a two CD set that will be issued in March 2010 by Nonesuch Records.) In addition, Carnegie will present two masterclasses on improvisation and collaboration for piano soloists and jazz trios by Mehldau at the popular downtown New York club Le Poisson Rouge. read more
By Frank J. Oteri
Published: 1/27/2010

George Manahan to Lead American Composers Orchestra
George Manahan has been named music director of the American Composers Orchestra, the third since the orchestra's inception in 1977, following founding conductor Dennis Russell Davis and Steven Sloane. Manahan has already begun working closely with ACO's composer leadership—artistic director Robert Beaser and creative advisor Derek Bermel—in shaping ACO's 2010-11 season during which he will lead all three of ACO's concerts presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall. These concerts will continue the orchestra's focus on emerging and mid-career American composers, combined with works by seminal composers such as Charles Ives, Jacob Druckman, and John Luther Adams. The season will also see the continuation of ACO's Playing it UNSafe program, a professional laboratory for the creation of cutting-edge new orchestral music; as well as the world premiere of the second work commissioned as part of ACO's innovative partnership with luxury goods company LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The new orchestral work will reflect on the theme of "A Greener New York City," emphasizing the connection between new music and the issues of today. At the end of the current season, Manahan will also conduct ACO's Underwood New Music Readings on May 21 and 22, 2010. read more
Published: 1/20/2010

Martin Kennedy Receives $5,000 ASCAP Foundation Nissim Prize
Composer and pianist Martin Kennedy has been named the recipient of The ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize. The prize was awarded for Trivial Pursuits, an eight-minute work for violin and orchestra. The work was selected from more than 220 submissions. Kennedy receives a $5,000 cash prize. The Nissim Jury also recognized the following composers for Special Distinction: Clint Needham (Bloomington, IN) for the Body Electric, a nine-minute work for orchestra; and Matthew Peterson (Grand Forks, ND) for Reflections on the Death of the Beloved, a 15-minute work for symphonic band. read more
Published: 1/20/2010

ASCAP Recognizes Adventurous Chamber Music Programming
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will recognize nine chamber music and jazz ensembles, festivals, and presenters for their adventurous programming at the annual Chamber Music America National Conference on January 17, 2010, in New York City. read more
Published: 1/11/2010

Jonathan Howard Katz Wins 2010 Robert Helps Composition Competition

Jonathan Howard Katz

Composer/pianist Jonathan Howard Katz has won the fifth annual Robert Helps Prize in Composition, a $10,000 cash award sponsored by the University of South Florida School of Music. The premiere performance of Katz's winning work, Talking of Michelangelo (2009), will take place at the 2010 Robert Helps Festival on February 12, 2010 in Tampa, Florida. Entries submitted for consideration in the 2010 Competition had to be original unpublished compositions between 10 and 20 minutes in duration and scored for tenor voice and piano with the optional addition of one other instrument. No prepared piano could be used, but works featuring playing inside the piano were acceptable. The competition was only open to composers who will not have reached the age of 36 by February 14, 2010. All materials had to be submitted anonymously, marked only with a pseudonym of the composer's choice. Jurors for the 2010 competition were Louis Andriessen, Brad Diamond, Svetozar Ivanov, and Paul Reller. read more
Published: 12/23/2009

Columbia and ACO Partner For New Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute
The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and the American Composers Orchestra have announced a new collaborative project: the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI). JCOI, which is generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, will provide instruction to jazz composers in working with the symphony orchestra, an area that many jazz composers wish to engage, but for which access to educational and performance opportunities are few. read more
Published: 12/23/2009

Sparr to Serve as Composer-In-Residence for Richmond Symphony's Youth Orchestra

D. J. Sparr

The Richmond Symphony has announced the launch of its Composer-in-Residence program in collaboration with local composer D.J. Sparr. The program will give students in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program the opportunity to participate in classes, composition lessons and workshops with Sparr, who will work with the Richmond Symphony until June 2011. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, Sparr will also compose new works for Richmond Symphony's Youth Orchestra and for the members of the Symphony's Interactive Composition Class. read more
Published: 12/17/2009

Seven Musicians and Composers Awarded $50,000 for Artistic Excellence
The national artists' advocacy organization United States Artists has announced the recipients of fifty $50,000 USA Fellowship grants for artistic excellence, including seven to musicians. They are:

Rahim AlHaj, oud musician (Albuquerque, NM. USA Ford Fellow)

Cyro Baptista, percussionist (Tenafly, NJ. USA Walker Fellow)

Ella Jenkins, children's musician (Chicago, IL. USA Collins Fellow)

Danongan Kalanduyan, kulintang musician (San Francisco, CA. USA Broad Fellow)

Hannibal Lokumbe, composer and jazz trumpeter (Bastrop, TX. USA Cummings Fellow)

Lionel Loueke, jazz guitarist and vocalist (North Bergen, NJ. USA Prudential Fellow)

Daniel Plonsey, composer of new music (El Cerrito, CA. USA Broad Fellow)

Learn more about the fellows and United States Artists here. (—Condensed from the press release)
Published: 12/15/2009

ACF Names Six Recipients of First Nations Composer Initiative Common Ground Program Grants
Six grants ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 have been awarded to American Indian/Indigenous musical artists in the sixth round of grant making from First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), a program of American Composers Forum. The sixth round 2009 Common Ground grant recipients are: Joy Harjo (Mvskoke); Shirley Kendall and Maria Williams (Tlingit/Haida); Cheryl L'Hirondelle (Mestis/Cree-non status); Shelly Morning Song (Northern Cheyenne); Murray Porter (Mohawk); and Janet Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora). read more
Published: 12/10/2009

28 Composers Receieve a Total of $31K in AMC Composer Assistance Program Awards

The American Music Center (AMC) has awarded Composer Assistance Program grants totaling $31,000 to 28 American composers based in 12 states and ranging in age from 24 to 78. AMC annually awards grants that assist composers by helping them realize their music in premiere performances. Since 1962, the Composer Assistance Program (CAP) has provided over $2 million in support to American composers. Over 1,420 composers have received a CAP award at some point in their career, including Gordon Beeferman, Eve Beglarian, David Del Tredici, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Steve Reich. Composers must be members of the American Music Center to apply for an award. As of the October 2009 round, composers are now able to receive travel assistance to attend the premiere of the awarded work. The grants are intended to help composers take full advantage of performance opportunities that will enhance their careers. Ensembles and organizations premiering or featuring public readings of this most recent round of CAP-supported works include Ethel, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble, and Earplay.

Hale Smith (1925-2009)

Hale Smith; photo by Lois Anderson

On November 24, 2009, America lost Hale Smith, one of its most important composers. His works musically intertwined the dialectic between African American identity and European traditions. Rooted in contemporary expression, Hale Smith set out to resolve the paradoxes of both improvisation and notated music. Influenced by jazz, closed and open forms, graphic and proportional notation, as well as aleatoric and serial thinking, each of his compositions embraced a different ambiance and reflected a fresh manifestation of his personality. Hale Smith's sense of humor and provocative gift of conversation were legendary. His desire to stay youthful was evident even to the point of asking his grandchildren to call him "Pete" and not "Grandpa." But his passionate disdain for minimal and rap music was a constant in his later years. read more
By T. J. Anderson
Published: 11/30/2009

ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition Winners Annouced
The competition, named for legendary soprano Lotte Lehmann, was established to encourage and recognize gifted young composers who write for voice. First Prize ($3,500) went to Zhou Tian, age 27, of Los Angeles, CA. Zhou will receive a commission to write a song cycle for voice and piano to be published by E.C. Schirmer. The commissioned song cycle will be performed in three major American cities. read more
Published: 11/18/2009

Chamber Music America to Honor Chick Corea

Chick Corea; photo by Michael Grecco, courtesy Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.

Chick Corea will receive the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award at Chamber Music America's annual awards banquet during its 2010 National Conference on January 17. During the banquet composer/pianist Billy Childs and composer, educator, and parodist Peter Schickele (a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach) will speak in tribute to him. In addition, Chamber Music America will collaborate with New York's Symphony Space to present a special tribute concert to Chick Corea on Saturday, January 16. Earlier that day, Corea will be joined by Childs, violinist/violist Ida Kavafian, cellist Fred Sherry, and violist Phillip Ying in a discussion of a form that can bring classical and jazz together: the string quartet.

A pianist, a keyboardist, and a drummer as well as a composer, Chick Corea has had a career which has encompassed an encyclopedic range of musical activity. He has straddled the realms of acoustic and electric, improvised and notated jazz. He has collaborated with generations of music legends including Miles Davis, Willie Bobo, Gary Burton, and Anthony Braxton. Chamber Music America honors Corea's longtime allegiance to small-ensemble music, both in his collaborations as well as his own groups, which include Return to Forever, the Elektric and Akoustic Bands, Circle, and Origin. As a composer, he has created a body of notated work that has been taken up by classical chamber music groups as well as jazz ensembles. (—Condensed from the press release)
Published: 11/10/2009

Max Lifchitz Given Zethus Lifetime Achievement Award

Max Lifchitz

Max Lifchitz has been given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Zethus Fund for Contemporary Music. Composer and Zethus Fund Executive Director Robert Martin announced the $10,000 award for Lifchitz, whose involvement in new music encompasses a broad range of activities—conductor, composer, pianist, and the founder/director of the North/South Consonance performing group, concert series, and recording label. Lifchitz, who was born in Mexico City in 1948 and has been based in the United States since 1966, is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University. He has served on the faculties of Columbia University and the State University of New York at Albany where he has been a mentor to generations of younger composers and musicians. As a composer, Lifchitz has composed works in numerous media spanning solo works to pieces for full symphony orchestra. And as a pianist and conductor he has championed the music of composers encompassing a broad range of styles. For the past 30 years, North/South Consonance has presented a series of concerts devoted to new music by composers from the United States and Latin America and to date has released over 50 CD recordings of new music. (—Condensed from the press release)
Published: 11/10/2009