Independence Day Honors, 2021: DALE WARLAND—The American Prize National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement

Internationally renowned choral conductor DALE WARLAND is the 2021 recipient of The American Prize National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement presented by The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts in conjunction with The Gothic Calalog family of record labels. The Award, which consists of a beautifully framed citation recognizing Maestro Warland’s contributions to the art, is part of The American Prize’s annual Independence Day Honors, announced July 4, 2021, at which vocal artists Amy Johnson and Adriana Zabala were also honored. The announcement coincides with the renaming of The American Prize in Choral Conducting to The American Prize Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting. A seed gift of $2000 from The American Prize and The Gothic Catalog creates the Dale Warland Endowment for The American Prize to insure that the Dale Warland Award in Choral Conducting remains a permanent annual offering of The American Prize contests.

Link to list of past winners of The American Prize in Choral Conducting (The Dale Warland Award): 

https://theamericanprizewinners.blogspot.com/2019/01/chorus-conductors_9.html

Link to the contest page on The American Prize website: 

http://www.theamericanprize.org/choraldiv.html

Dale Warland is the most significant American choral director of our time. Warland commissioned over 270 new choral works and fostered the careers of an entire generation of composers from around the globe. Warland’s 29 commercially released recordings include Walden Pond, nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance in 2003; Harvest Home, which reached number 11 on the Billboard Top Classical Albums in November 2005; and Lux Aurumque, which was named a Top Ten Classical Album by National Public Radio in 2007.

Dale Warland has made an indelible impression on contemporary choral music, nationally and internationally. In a quarter-century with The Dale Warland Singers (DWS), he shaped an all-professional a cappella ensemble lauded for its exquisite sound, technical finesse, and stylistic range. From that platform, Warland offered stunning performances of traditional repertory and premiered commissioned works on national and international stages. After disbanding The Dale Warland Singers in 2004, he served as music director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Chorale and the Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale—both positions created for him.

Warland’s many honors include awards from ASCAP, the 2001 McKnight Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements as a choral conductor and his continuing contributions to the arts in Minnesota; the 2002 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal; the 1995 Chorus America Michael Korn Founder’s Award, the highest honor for a choral conductor in the United States, previously awarded to Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, and Roger Wagner, among others. 

In 2012 he was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. In his mid-eighties, he remains sought-after as conductor, composer, and teacher. Guest-conducting has taken him to the podiums of the Danish and Swedish radio choirs, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble, John Alexander Singers, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the American Masterpieces Choral Festival, the Utah Chamber Artists, Vocal Arts Ensemble (Cincinnati), Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Rochester Choral Arts and Israel’s Cameran Singers, to name a few. He curates choral series for five publishers; his own compositions and arrangements are widely performed. His acclaimed DWS recordings are available through www.gothicrecords.com. The DWS Archives, housed at the University of Cincinnati, constitute a unique resource for the profession.

For more about Dale Warland, please visit: https://dalewarland.com

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation's most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the musical and theater arts, unique in scope and structure, designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. The American Prize has attracted thousands of qualified contestants from all fifty states since its founding, has awarded more than $100,000 in prizes in all categories since 2010, and is presented annually in many areas of the performing arts. Applications for the 2022 contests are being accepted at least through the covid-extended deadline of September 9, 2021. Additional information about the competitions of The American Prize on the website: www.theamericanprize.org

The Gothic Catalog is home to a family of record labels specializing in recordings of choral music, and organ music. Founded in 1979, Gothic has published great performances of music both famous and not well-known. The house labels include Gothic Records, Loft Recordings, Clarion, reZound, Quilisma, and WNC (Washington National Cathedral). Gothic titles have received numerous awards, including Grammys ® Grammy nominations ® and The American Prizes, and Gothic artists include a significant number who have received Chorus America’s highest honor, the Margret Hillis Award. In addition to first rate performances and interesting repertoire, Gothic Catalog recordings are renowned for their audio quality. For more information on Gothic, visit The Gothic Catalog Web site (www.gothic-catalog.com)

Donations to the Dale Warland Endowment for The American Prize may be made through this link: http://www.theamericanprize.org/Donate.html. Donors wishing to give to the Fund in other ways should contact David Katz, chief judge of The American Prize, at theamericanprize@gmail.com. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law and all will receive an emailed receipt for their tax records. Donations to the Dale Warland Endowment for The American Prize are held in perpetuity. Only the income of the Fund may be used to help fund prizes. The American Prize is administered by Hat City Music Theater, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit performing arts organization based in Danbury, Connecticut.

THE AMERICAN PRIZE—History & Judges

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts grew from the belief that a great deal of excellent music being made in this country goes unrecognized and unheralded, not only in our major cities, but all across the country: in schools and churches, in colleges and universities, and by community and professional musicians.

With the performing arts in America marginalized like never before, The American Prize seeks to fill the gap that leaves excellent artists and ensembles struggling for visibility and viability. The American Prize recognizes and rewards the best America produces, without bias against small city versus large, or unknown artist versus well-known.

David Katz is the chief judge of The American Prize. Professional conductor, award-winning composer, playwright, actor and arts advocate, he is author of MUSE of FIRE, the acclaimed one-man play about the art of conducting. Joining Katz in selecting winners of The American Prize is a panel of judges as varied in background and experience as we hope the winners of The American Prize will be. Made up of distinguished musicians representing virtually every region of the country, the group includes professional vocalists, conductors, composers and pianists, tenured professors, and orchestra, band and choral musicians.

“Most artists may never win a Grammy award, or a Pulitzer, or a Tony, or perhaps even be nominated,” Katz said, “but that does not mean that they are not worthy of recognition and reward. Quality in the arts is not limited to a city on each coast, or to the familiar names, or only to graduates of a few schools. It is on view all over the United States, if you take the time to look for it. The American Prize exists to encourage and herald that excellence.”

By shining a light on nationally recognized achievement, winners of The American Prize receive world-class bragging rights to use in promotion right at home. “If The American Prize helps build careers, or contributes to local pride, or assists with increasing the audience for an artist or ensemble, builds the donor base, or stimulates opportunities or recruitment for winning artists and ensembles, then we have fulfilled our mission,” Katz said.