Winners: COMPOSERS (vocal chamber music), 2021
The American Prize Nation Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts, David (Volosin) Katz, chief judge, is honored to announce the winners, runners-up and honorable mentions of The American Prize in Composition, 2021, in the vocal chamber music division. Congratulations!
QUICKNOTES: Although The American Prize does not usually provide written evaluations to semi-finalists, some semi-finalist composers will receive in their certificate packets short comments, suggestions or overall impressions made during the judging. We hope they will prove valuable. All finalists receive written evaluations from a member of The American Prize judging panel.
COVID EXTENSIONS to APPLY for 2022: Because of the current national and international situation, many rules have been changed and requirements eased to make it easier to apply for The American Prize, 2022. In addition, application deadlines have been extended with further extensions available by email request.
Applications from CONDUCTORS, STAGE DIRECTORS, CONDUCTED ENSEMBLES, ARTS ADMINISTRATORS (arts marketing, arts education) in the performance of American Music (BACON AWARD) and in the new category of VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE will be accepted until Tuesday, July 20, 2021, with extensions available by email request.
Applications from COMPOSERS, CLASSICAL VOCALISTS, PIANISTS, CHAMBER ENSEMBLES and INSTRUMENTAL SOLOISTS will be accepted through the revised deadline of Tuesday, July 20, 2021, with extensions available by email request.
Visit theamericanprize.org for complete contest information.
Please make us aware of any misprints: theamericanprize@gmail.com
The American Prize in Composition—Vocal Chamber Music (professional division), 2021
The American Prize winner:
Leah Reid
Woburn MA
Apple; Single Fish
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| Leah Reid |
Leah Reid is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Her primary research interests involve the perception, modeling, and compositional applications of timbre. In her works, timbre acts as a catalyst for exploring new soundscapes, time, space, perception, and color. In recent reviews, Reid’s works have been described as “immersive,” “haunting,” and “shimmering.” Her works are frequently performed throughout Europe and North America, with notable premieres by Accordant Commons, Ensemble Móbile, the Jack Quartet, McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, Neave Trio, Sound Gear, Talea, and Yarn/Wire. Reid received her DMA and MA from Stanford University and her BM from McGill University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia. www.leahreidmusic.com
2nd Place:
Patricia Wallinga
San Francisco CA
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
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| Patricia Wallinga |
San Francisco-based composer and mezzo-soprano Patricia Wallinga connects audiences with unheard stories, voices, and ideas of the modern world. Her work has earned praise as “powerful” (Bloomington Herald-Times) and “damn brilliant” (conductor and composer Eric Whitacre),
Highlights of Wallinga’s career include receiving a 2015 BMI Student Composer Award and being a resident composer fellow at the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, in collaboration with the Del Sol String Quartet. She also prides herself on her work in the music community at large, both as a skilled contemporary choral singer and a vocal advocate for equality and modernity via her extensive Twitter presence.
Wallinga holds a Master of Music Composition degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Composition from Indiana University. Follow her on Twitter at @pwallinga or learn more at patriciawallinga.com.
3rd Place (there was a tie):
Shawn Crouch
Pembroke Pine FL
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
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| Shawn Crouch |
Gramophone Magazine calls Shawn Crouch a "gifted composer" and the New York Times describes Shawn Crouch's work as music of "gnarling atonal energy". The Miami Herald called his Road from Hiroshima; A Requiem a "staggering achievement.” Recently Crouch’s Visions and Ecstasies, A Mass was named “Best New Work” by the South Florida Classical Review. Shawn has received grants and awards from such institutions as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Prize, ASCAP, BMI, Yale University, Society of Composers Inc., Meet the Composer, NewMusicUSA, and the Percussive Arts Society. Crouch has had his works performed and commissioned by ensembles in the United States, Canada and Europe including the Cleveland Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, The American Guild of Organists, Cantori New York, Chanticleer, Eighth Blackbird, Essential Voices USA, Phoenix Chorale, Prism Quartet, Santa Fe Chorale, Seraphic Fire, Splinter Reeds, and Volti. Shawn Crouch's music is published by ECS Publishing, Hal Leonard and HoneyRock Publishing.
3rd Place (there was a tie):
Emerson Eads
Minot ND
The Gleaners
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| Emerson Eads |
Emerson Eads is from Fairbanks, Alaska. He studied composition with Adlai Burman and John Luther Adams. He studied choral conducting at the University of Notre Dame with Carmen-Helena Téllez, obtaining his Doctorate in Musical Arts in May, 2018. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Minot State University.
Finalist Honorable Mention:
Megan DiGeorgio
Hyattsville MD
I'm Terrified
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| Megan DiGeorgio |
Megan DiGeorgio is a violist, composer, and educator based in the Washington, DC area. As a composer, recent highlights include commissions from clarinetist Joanna McCoskey Wiltshire and the University of Maine Farmington music program, having a piece selected for performance at the 2021 TURN UP Multimedia Festival, a virtual premiere by the International Contemporary Ensemble, being commissioned by Fear No Music for their HEARINGS project, and winning TURNmusic's 2019 Composition Prize. She has also had recent performances by Hypercube percussionist Chris Graham, Artifice, Invoke, and the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra. She serves as the Director of Education Advancement for the Boulanger Initiative, is a member of the leadership board of District New Music Coalition, and she is a founding member of Artifice Ensemble. In addition, she maintains a studio of viola, violin, and composition students, and sings professionally at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. She holds degrees from Vermont College of Fine Arts, University of Delaware, and Catholic University.
Finalist Honorable Mention:
Edith Hemenway
Providence RI
A Child's Garden of Verses
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| Edith Hemenway |
Edith Hemenway was born Dec. 23,1926, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Dr. Reginald Fitz and Phoebe Wright Fitz. Composer and pianist, she has long been active in the Eastern part of the United States. She holds graduate music degrees from both Brown University (composition) and the New England Conservatory of Music (vocal accompaniment). She has performed with a variety of chamber groups, devoting herself especially to the art song repertoire. Her own chamber works and children’s operas have been performed in various New England, New York, Western and Southern venues, as well as in The Netherlands, where much of her oeuvre was written specifically for clarinetist Nancy Braithwaite and her colleagues. Her husband, Rev. Augustus L. Hemenway, died in 1994, leaving her with eight children and their numerous offspring. She currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
The American Prize in Composition—Vocal Chamber Music (student division), 2021
The American Prize winner:
Aletta Steynberg
Boston MA / Berlin DE
Astrak Somer Sone; Woatlemoen & Wrede Landskap
Aletta Steynberg
Boston MA / Berlin DE
Astrak Somer Sone; Woatlemoen & Wrede Landskap
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| Aletta Steynberg |
Aletta (Althea) Steynberg is a composer, performer, conductor, orchestrator and music technology specialist. Her passion is to help people tell their stories by bringing their experiences to life with the synergy of her talents as a musician and modern technologies. She has found her calling in creating music for immersive media installations and extended reality experiences that serve a cause. Her aim is to change the perception of entertainment – not as a tool to burn time or passively stare at a screen but to show the beauty of the world's people through art; to connect communities across the globe through the power of music and storytelling. For more information you can access her website here: http://altheasteynberg.com/
2nd Place:
Evgeniya (Jane) Kozhevnikova
Kalamazoo MI
I Shall Go Back Again; I Know I am but Summer to Your Heart; Pity Me Not; I Looked in My Heart
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| Evgeniya (Jane) Kozhevnikova |
Evgeniya “Jane” Kozhevnikova, a Fulbright Scholar, is a candidate for the Master of Music degree in Jazz Performance at Western Michigan University. Jane received her bachelor’s degree from the Russian State Professional Pedagogical University and her first master’s degree in Music Composition from Western Michigan University. She has been working as a musician in theatres, performing original music with her jazz band, and teaching piano.
In 2019, Jane received a DownBeat Magazine Outstanding Performance award in the Latin jazz category. She also became one of the six winners of "Music Now" contest, a part of ISU Contemporary Music Festival. Her works has been performed at the regional, national, and international level music events.
3rd Place (there was a tie):
June Young Kim
Roslyn NY
Yeomwon
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| June Young Kim |
Composer and baritone June Young (Will) Kim (b. 1996) began writing his first notes as a singer-songwriter before turning to concert music and bases many of his compositions on texts, which are often his own. He is one of the four selected composers to participate at the Berlin Philharmonic OpusONE 2020, where his piece will be performed by members of the Berlin Philharmonic at their Chamber Hall. He recently attended the Domaine Forget New Music Festival 2019 where he studied with Chaya Czernowin, and the Accademia Chigiana where he studied with Salvatore Sciarrino. He graduated from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington in 2018 and is currently pursuing a Masters in Composition at Hochschule Für Musik und Theater München with Isabel Mundry. He is funded by the DAAD scholarship.
3rd Place (there was a tie):
Ian Wiese
Chester NJ
Aus Liebe
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| Ian Wiese |
A “captivating mix of busy and sparse” according to Boston Musical Intelligencer, Ian Wiese is a Quincy-based composer and current DMA in composition student at The New England Conservatory of Music under John Heiss. His works have been heard in places as far as Oslo, Norway and The Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Pieces of his have been performed by Imani Winds, Box Not Found, Some Assembly Required, Aaron Larget-Caplan as part of his New Lullaby Project, and many others; Wiese has won the Mu Phi Epsilon Original Composition Competition and 2020 Convention Call for Scores, the Ithaca College Jack Downey Vocal Composition Prize, and a position in the 2018 Collage New Music Composers Colloquium at Longy School of Music at Bard College. Wiese holds a MM in composition from New England Conservatory and a BM in composition from Ithaca College. https://ianwiese.com/
Finalist Honorable Mention:
Deovides A. Reyes III
Saint Meinrad IN
Montage ; Vigil for the Naked Skydiver
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| Deovides A. Reyes III |
Grand prize winner of the 6th Sond-Ar’te composition competition, Dennis Deovides Reyes III, also known as Br. Michael Reyes, OSB, is a Benedictine monk from Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Indiana. Dennis has been selected by the University of London as one of the five composers from around the world to write a new composition for electronics and instruments, and to be one of the five panelists at their annual International Composers’ Forum. He has been awarded by the Philippine government the “Ani ng Dangal” award for his musical contributions in the international scene. Dennis’ compositions find inspiration in a wide range of subjects, from Asian music to modern art, and incorporate elements of Philippine tradition.
Special Judges' Encouragement Citation:
Christina Xiao
Lexington MA
Approaching The End
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| Christina Xiao |
Christina Xiao is a 17-year-old composer attending 12th grade at Phillips Exeter Academy and studying under Jon Sakata. From a young age, Christina has loved writing music, in addition to playing the piano and the violin. She enjoys how so many different and complex feelings can be evoked in an audience just through listening to a piece. She believes that music is able to touch and transform people’s hearts – something that is quite relevant to our increasingly polarized world. She is inspired to compose by the beautiful, strange world around her and her boundless love of music. She was a Finalist in the 2019 National Young Composers Challenge, received an Honorable Mention in the 2020 ACF High School Music Creator Awards, was an Emerging Composer in 2016 for the Tribeca New Music Composition Competition, and has won multiple MTNA Regional and State 1st places.
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Congratulations!
Congratulations!
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