The American Prize welcomes SIX NEW JUDGES to our distinguished national panel.
Read their bios below or
Michael S. Butler
Michael S. Butler is the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music in the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University. He oversees the university’s band and orchestra program, conducts the wind ensemble and orchestra, leads the graduate wind conducting program, and serves as the music director for the Dana Youth Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Butler is a firm believer in providing transformative and memorable experiences for all students through frequent collaboration with high-level musicians, composers, and conductors.
Before his appointment at YSU, Dr. Butler served as the Director of Bands for six years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where the band program prospered and regularly engaged with world-class musical artists. The UWSP Symphonic Wind Ensemble received multiple accolades during Dr. Butler's tenure, including an invitation to perform at the National Band Association Conference in Wisconsin and recognition twice from CBDNA as one of the finest small university wind ensembles in the nation. Additional experience includes serving as the Associate Director of Bands & Orchestra at Spruce Creek High School, the Director of Bands at William R. Boone High School, and teaching at the University of Florida. Ensembles under his leadership flourished and received invitations to perform at the Florida Music Educators Conference and the renowned Carnegie Hall.
Dr. Butler is an active clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor nationally and internationally, including ensembles like the United States Army Band Pershing’s Own. Butler Dr. Butler regularly collaborates with composers and has received high praise for his ensemble’s performances and interpretations. A staunch advocate of new music for the wind band, he regularly commissions new music to ensure talented composers contribute to the repertoire. Recent commissions include leading a consortium by Juilliard composer Wayne Oquin, which was awarded the 2018 National Band Association’s William D. Revelli composition prize and spearheading the commission of the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe’s first composition for wind band. Additionally, he remains active as a researcher and academic writer, contributing articles to music educator journals and the GIA Series “Teaching Music Through Performance in Band.”
The National Band Association has awarded Dr. Butler multiple Citations of Excellence for his contributions to wind bands. He is an active member of the College Band Director’s National Association, the National Band Association, and the National Association for Music Education. He is also a proud member of Kappa Kappa Psi, Mu Phi Epsilon, Kappa Delta Pi, and is an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Pierce Emata
Currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, Pierce Emata received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Piano Performance from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he coached with international concert artists Alfonso Montecino, John Ogdon, and Gyorgy Sebok. He has also coached with Istvan Nadas, as well as John Simms. He has appeared in many solo and orchestral concert series, such as the Dame Myra Hess nationally broadcast concerts in Chicago. His popular series of informal commentary concerts, trademarked and titled Concerts & Conversation, has been widely presented throughout the midwestern and western United States, with broadcasts on NPR affiliates in various states. He has been awarded artist grants and fellowships from the Indiana, South Dakota and Nevada arts councils in recognition for his work in concertizing, recording, advanced teaching, and composition. He has concertized throughout the United States and abroad; in 2017 and 2019 he performed in Pune, India, and will return to India next season for concerts and master classes, as well as in Japan. He is in demand as a juror for various competitions across the country and abroad such as the Music Teachers National Association's Divisional and State competitions, Steinway & Sons piano competitions and the Musiquest National India Piano Competition. He is also in demand as a presenter and conference artist to state music teacher organizations and conventions, speaking on best practices in teaching and performing, style interpretation, playing technique, and career coaching to enable students to become credible 21st century musicians. In addition, he has served on national grant committees for the Music Teachers National Association, as well as performance grant committees for the Indiana Arts Commission. Mr. Emata is on the summer piano faculty at the internationally renown Interlochen Center for the Arts, which brings together 2700 students from 50 countries annually, where he teaches master classes and private lessons to gifted students.
Joanne Polk
Pianist Joanne Polk was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label. Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin. A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He went on to describe Ms. Polk’s performance as, “an enormously vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical penache to the showy conclusion.”
The first recording in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording. Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting. The sixth volume of the series, Morning Glories, joins Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber music works by Amy Beach. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.” American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.”
Prior to recording the complete piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker. This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on Performance Today on New York Public Radio. Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont. Her CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2010, Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianofore, was released on the Newport Classic label. Ms. Polk’s solo piano CD, titled Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, was released in 2012 on the Bridge Records label.
In 2014, Ms. Polk’s CD titled The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway and Sons Label. The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station WQXR, and debuted at number 1 on the Classical Billboard Chart. In 2017, Joanne Polk’s CD, Gershwin & Wild, was released on the Steinway and Sons Label and features Earl Wild’s transcriptions of Gershwin songs, as well as Wild’s Piano Sonata. American Record Guide called Ms. Polk’s playing on this CD, “plush and dreamily attractive…”
In 2014, Joanne Polk was named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.” Ms. Polk’s profile focused on her work promoting the music of women composers.
Ms. Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has given master classes at many summer festivals and universities across the country, and in 2018 completed a five-city, three-week concert and master class tour of Taiwan and China. In 2019, two of Ms. Polk’s CDs, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn and The Flatterer: Solo Piano Music by Cécile Chaminade, were included on New York City’s classical radio station WQXR’s Essential Piano Recordings. In February 2020, Ms. Polk’s CD Louise Farrenc Etudes and Variations for Solo Piano, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label. In March 2020, Joanne Polk was interviewed about her Farrenc CD on NPR’s Performance Today hosted by radio personality Fred Child. In December 2020, Ms. Polk’s Farrenc CD was on The New York Times “Best Classical Music of 2020” list. In November 2020, Ms. Polk recorded Variations on Santa Claus is Coming To Town (after Chopin’s Etudes), a brilliant and fun set of variations composed by David Shenton, utilizing all 24 Chopin Etudes, and weaving the popular Christmas song throughout. This CD was released on the Steinway and Sons Label. To find out more about Ms. Polk, please visit her website at www.joannepolkpianist.com. Ms. Polk is a member of the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music, and is an exclusive Steinway artist.
Ulli Reiner
Ulli Reiner, a five-time nominated Grammy Education Award finalist since 2016 and a top ten Finalist for 2017, Ms. Reiner is the epitome of music. Music is her life as an educator, conductor and violinist. She is the Orchestra Director for the Poway Unified School District since 1983. Ms. Reiner is an adjunct faculty member of Palomar College, Concertmaster of the Palomar Symphony Orchestra for 30 years, founder, Orchestra Manager and Concertmaster of the PUSD Adult School Poway Community Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the PUSD Adult School Poway Community Symphonette. Ms. Reiner is also Artistic Director and co-founder of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra String program and formerly conductor and co-founder of the Civic Youth Orchestra-Intermediate String Orchestra and Chamber String ensembles. She was the founder and Orchestra Director of the Poway High School Symphony and has taught orchestra at Mt. Carmel High School, Black Mountain Middle School, Mesa Verde Middle School, and Meadowbrook Middle School. She is currently the Orchestra Director at Bernardo Heights Middle School, Twin Peaks Middle School, and also is the instructor for the Music Appreciation classes offered to non-music students.
A graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, as a full scholarship recipient, she received a Bachelor of Music Education degree with emphasis in violin and viola performance and went on to graduate study at San Diego State University as first violinist with the Graduate String Quartet in residence, the University of Southern California, and the University of San Diego, having worked towards three master’s degrees in music education, Suzuki violin and violin performance. Her violin and viola teachers have included Melvin Ritter-Concert Artist, Tiberius Klausner-former pupil of Ivan Galamian of Juilliard, Yukiko Kamei-Assistant to Jascha Heifetz at USC, Noumi Fisher-MGM recording artist, Milton Thomas-Professor of Viola at USC and her father, Rudolf Reiner. She is also a direct descendent of the great conductor, Fritz Reiner.
Jennifer Rodgers
Dr. Jennifer Rodgers is the Assistant Director of Choral Activities and an Assistant Teaching Professor in the voice division at Iowa State University. She directs the Cantamus and Lyrica ensembles and her voice studio encompasses voice majors, performance arts majors, and non-majors. With a bachelor’s and master’s degree in voice performance, Dr. Rodgers is a voice pedagogue dedicated to work in the choral setting and bridging contemporary and traditional solo voice styles. She received her DMA in choral conducting from the University of Washington and has led college ensembles ranging from intimate a cappella groups to large mixed, TB, and SA choruses. She has also served as the artistic director for large community choruses in Virginia and Washington and for numerous church choirs. Her private studio vocalists span from developing to aging voices, both professional and avocational.
Dr. Rodgers’ primary area of research is the definition and training of the choral singing voice and the development of an expanded field of choral pedagogy. Her dissertation, "A Voice in the Choir: Modernizing the Language and Practice of Vocal Pedagogy in the Choral Culture,” draws from both solo and choral singing cultures and is nominated for the American Choral Directors Association Julius Herford prize. Additionally, she has presented internationally on the topic of musical self-image and avocational adult singers, and has a growing body of published work and presentation in choral relevance – a movement to examine the field of choral music through a lens of inclusivity and connective dialogue.
Ken Walicki
Ken Walicki is an American composer who is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic, and engaging music, which reflects the times in which we live. Because of his unusual and interesting background, his sound world has evolved into a unique combination of Art, Pop, Jazz, and World music. Walicki‘s influences include Gyorgy Ligeti, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, and much more. He was one of the first composers to use turntables in his music and the first composer to have turntables and a D.J. as regular members in a standing ensemble.
His music has been performed throughout the world by, among others, the Kronos Quartet, ETHEL, the New Century Saxophone Quartet, the Soldier String Quartet, the Divan Consort, and members of the New York Philharmonic, The Los Angeles Symphony, The Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, The Detroit Symphony, The Pacific Symphony, the Istanbul Borusan Orchestra, and the SWR Kaiserslautern Orchestra. He was the composer-in-residence for the new music ensemble The Divan Consort.
Walicki has received grants and commissions from a variety of organizations and performing ensembles including the American Composers Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Kronos Quartet, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and Meet the Composer.
Growing up playing guitar in local Detroit garage bands, Walicki decided, at early age, he wanted to dedicate his life to music. His education included a three-year period in Germany as a Fulbright scholar where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, and Rolf Hempel. He was also an active participant in master classes with Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and William Schumann. After returning from Germany, he studied with Jere Hutcheson at Michigan State University where he received his Ph.D.
Walicki enjoys traveling and finds it to be a fantastic source of inspiration. After spending a large amount of time in the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent, he has found these cultures to be particularly close to his heart. Together these experiences have made him a composer of diverse, accessible, physically, and spiritually moving, yet intellectually rigorous music. In addition to his music being presented in traditional concert music venues such as Lincoln Center in New York and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, his music has also been performed in new music clubs such as CBGB’s, the Knitting Factory, and countless cafes and storefronts throughout the world. Without compromising his values, he has made a point of writing music that relates to people and their situations.
Walicki has collaborated with a variety of artists in the classical, pop, theater, film, and dance worlds, including Lydia Lunch, Dora Ohrenstein, the Doug Elkins Dance Company, Emmy winning producer/director Mark Obenhaus, American Opera Projects, Bermuda Triangle, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Kronos Quartet, Divan Consort, and Ensemble Green. He was the founder and composer of the Ken Valitsky Ensemble, which included Regina Carter and Thomas Chapin as members.
Previously, besides being on the faculty at New York University, Walicki has taught composition in Istanbul, Turkey at the Center for Advanced Music Techniques (MIAM), a department of Istanbul Technical University. Currently, he lives in Southern California with his son, and the family dogs. His music is available on Knitting Factory Works, C.R.I., CRS Artists, Channel Records, Albany Records, and Ravello Records.
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