Elliott Carter Photo by Kathy Chapman, courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes

Elliott Carter has become the first composer ever to win Chamber Music America's Prestigious Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, which is given annually in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music field. Carter's output of chamber music is vast and includes five string quartets (two awarded the Pulitzer Prize), works for wind and brass, for piano and solo instruments or voice, for mixed ensemble with piano, three large works for voice and chamber ensemble, instrumental duos, trios and quartets, plus important solo works. In recognizing Carter, CMA noted "his innovation, vision and fervor."

Carter's links with some of the legendary names in 20^th century music are inspiring. While still a high school student in New York City, he was introduced to Charles Ives, and for many years Ives was Carter's mentor and friend. In 1935, Carter left America to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. His composer colleagues have included Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, Goffredo Petrassi and Pierre Boulez. Carter found kindred artistic spirits in some of this century's great poets - Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery - finding in their works both text and inspiration for the three song cycles for voice and large mixed ensemble. In turn, Carter's works have been championed by an impressive list of musicians, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

Previous Recipients of the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award 1980-2000
1980	-	Helen Rice - ACMP Founder
1981	-	C. Michael Paul Foundation
1982	-	Rudolf Serkin (ARCO - Corporate Service Award)
1983	-	Mischa and Alexander Schneider
1984	-	William Scheide Ernest Bueding Josef Gingold
1985	-	William Schuman
1986	-	Alice Tully
(Conference moved from December to January)
1988	-	Bernard Greenhouse
1989	-	Eugene Lehner
1990	-	Felix Galimir
1991	-	Robert Mann
1992	-	Sol Schoenbach
1993	-	Mieczyslaw Horszowski
1994	-	Lillian Fuchs
1995	-	Menahem Pressler
1996	-	Samuel Baron
1997	-	Charles Wadsworth
1998	-	Michael Jaffee
1999	-	Benita Valente
2000	-	Elliott Carter

As the first composer to win this award (William Schuman was honored in 1985 not as a composer but as an educator and administrator), Carter joins previous recipients (sidebar) such as Charles Wadsworth and Alice Tully. During Chamber Music America's Annual Awards Banquet, which concluded the organization's 2000 Conference, former Juilliard Quartet first violinist Robert Mann spoke of Carter's enriching the chamber music repertoire. Carter was then presented with an original drawing by Richard Hennessy, a New York-based American painter whose work he and his wife have been collecting for many years.

Carter's receipt of the Award capped a weekend filled with contemporary music activities at the 2000 Conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in midtown Manhattan between January 14 and 16. Carter's music was the subject of two seminars during the Conference, one of which was led by New York Times critic Paul Griffiths, who is also the librettist for Carter's new opera What Next. Other contemporary music-oriented events included new music sessions and panels led by staff members of the American Music Center, Meet The Composer and the American Composers Forum, an improvisation workshop featuring David Amram and Don Byron, and a CMA Commissioning Showcase Concert, held at St. Malachy's Church (a.k.a. The Actors' Chapel), which featured performances by the String Trio of New York, the Lark Quartet, and the Peabody Trio of music by three AMC member composers: Dave Douglas, Aaron Jay Kernis, Zhou Long.

from String Quartet No. 2 (Presto Scherzando) 30 seconds The Composers Quartet: Matthew Raimondi, violin Anahid Ajemian, violin Jean Dupouy, viola Michael Rudiakov, cello