Second Prize ($1,000) was awarded to Allen McCullough, age 29, of Lansdowne, PA and Third Prize ($750) was awarded to Ryan Gee, age 29, of Austin, TX. Both Second and Third Prize winners receive commissions to compose an art song for voice and piano.
The Damien Top Prize ($500) was awarded to Isaac Schankler, age 28, of Los Angeles, CA. The Damien Top Prize is a commission to set a poem by Andrée Brunin to be premiered at the 2008 Albert Roussel International Festival in France.
The competition judges were composers Susan Botti, William Rhoads, Su Lian Tan, and pianist/conductor, Scott Dunn.
World famous soprano Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976) was one of the great musical artists of the 20th Century. Lehmann's glorious, expressive voice and interpretive talent enthralled audiences with repertory ranging from opera to Lieder (classical German song). Lehmann fled her native Germany for the U.S. in 1938, and became an American citizen. After her singing career ended she continued to write books, give master-classes and helped found the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA. Her influence in the world of opera, art song and education was enormous.
Bios of the winning composers and competition judges are below.
Zachary Wadsworth
The music of Zachary Wadsworth, praised for its "evocative mixture of old and new," spans the entire spectrum of concert music, from music for solo instruments to choral works, art songs, chamber music, orchestra pieces, and an opera. He is also an active pianist and singer, performing regularly in chamber music, solo vocal, and choral settings.
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Zachary has received composition commissions from The Commission Project, the Hanson Institute for American Music, the Eastman School of Music, Smith College, St. Anne Church, Rochester, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rochester, and Christ Church, Rochester. His pieces have been performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, Long Leaf Opera, the Yale Philharmonia and Schola Cantorum, and the Eastman Chorale and Musica Nova.
He has received several composition awards, including first place in the first Long Leaf Opera One Act Opera Competition, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Morton Gould Young Composers Awards from The ASCAP Foundation, the Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize and the Simon Rose Memorial Scholarship from the Eastman School of Music, and the Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Memorial Prize from the Yale School of Music. A recording of his choral work, "O Saving Victim" is now available on the Gothic record label, and another choral work, "Beati Quorum Remissae," will soon be published by Alliance Music Publications.
Zachary has studied at the Eastman School of Music (BM, 2005) and Yale University (MM, 2007), and he is currently pursuing a DMA in music composition at Cornell University. His composition teachers have included Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Ingram Marshall, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Robert Morris, David Liptak, James Willey, and Syd Hodkinson. He also studied at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School. http://www.zacharywadsworth.com
Allen McCullough
Allen McCullough was born in 1978 in Dayton, Ohio. His musical career began with the study of the piano at age 4 and continued to include work with the violin, 'cello, and ultimately, composition.
Mr. McCullough earned a Bachelor's degree from Brown University where his principal studies were with Gerald Shapiro and Paul Phillips, and a Master of Music in composition from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Giampaolo Bracali. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has studied with Jim Primosch, Jay Reise, and Anna Weesner.
His awards in the arenas of performance, composition, and scholarship include the Paderewski Medal in the National Piano Guild's International Piano Playing Tournament, a Mary Wattles Morse Scholarship, a Benjamin Franklin/Fontaine Fellowship, and the Buxtehude Premium for Musical Excellence, among others.
Mr. McCullough's recent premieres and commissions include an oboe sonata, a setting of Tennyson's Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal - a work for a cappella choir written for the Eakins Vocal Consort, and a song set using text by Franz Kafka. He is currently working on two new art songs - one for Philadelphia's Network for New Music Ensemble, and the other for the ASCAP Lotte/Lehman Foundation.
Ryan Thomas Gee
Ryan Thomas Gee studied composition at Brigham Young University and later
the University of Texas at Austin. He has had works commissioned by the UT
Women's Chorus and KBYU radio. He currently conducts, accompanies, teaches
theory and produces rock music in Austin.
Isaac Schankler
Isaac Schankler is a composer, pianist and accordionist who draws inspiration from disparate musical traditions, among them classical, pop, jazz, klezmer, gamelan, and electronic music. Much of his work is concerned with occupying and exploring liminal states that fall between or outside these stylistic worlds. His works have been performed at venues throughout the United States, including the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Midwest Composer Symposium, Threshold Electroacoustic Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, and the University of Arizona, where he was a guest composer at the "Global Perspectives" symposium in 2005. In 2006 he was director and conductor of itch, Brevard Music Center's student new music ensemble. His work has also been featured on recordings by klezmer group Into the Freylakh and jazz quartet Anagram Ensemble. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Michigan, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he studies composition with Donald Crockett and piano with Dennis Thurmond. His previous teachers include Frank Ticheli, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, and Michael Daugherty.
Susan Botti
As both a composer and a singer, Susan Botti's eclectic background and experiences are reflected in her music. Whether in an orchestral or chamber setting, theatrical influences play a vital part in her musical expression.
Most recently, Botti was awarded a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2005 Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize in Music Composition. During the 2005-2006 season she was in residence at the American Academy in Rome.
Susan Botti was the 3rd Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2003-2004, the orchestra premiered her work, Impetuosity (conducted by Roberto Abbado), and a new work, Translucence, was commissioned by the orchestra and premiered in the 2004-2005 season, conducted by music director, Franz Welser-Moest.
In February '05, she premiered Cosmosis (for wind ensemble, soprano soloist and women's voices) at Carnegie Hall (settings of poetry by May Swenson). This work was commissioned by a consortium of universities led by the University of Michigan and conductor Michael Haithcock, who led the premiere with Botti as soloist. A recording of Cosmosis is available from Equilibrium.
Her EchoTempo (for Soprano, Percussion & Orchestra), was commissioned and premiered by Maestro Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic (with Botti and Christopher Lamb as soloists). The European premiere of EchoTempo (with the same soloists under Maestro Gunther Herbig) occurred soon after in the "Music im 21. Jahrhudert" festival in Saarbruecken, Germany. She performed this work in April, '05 with Maestro H.K. Gruber and the NPS Radio Orchestra in Utrecht, Holland with percussionist Peter Prommel. A commission from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for solo violin and chamber orchestra, Within Darkness, was premiered at Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center in 2000 with Martha Caplin as violin soloist.
A CD of Botti's vocal chamber music, listen, it's snowing, (New World/CRI) features her operatic soliloquy, Telaio: Desdemona (for soprano, string quartet, harp, piano & percussion). Called "striking emotional music..." (Opera Magazine), this work has been performed in New York City, Detroit, Santa Fe, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.
Recent compositions include: Tagore Madrigals (6 acapella voices); Stelle (chamber choir, harp and piano); 2 Gregerson Songs (soprano & piano); and Make-Falcon (a work in progress for chamber choir and percussion ensemble). Currently in progress is a 3-part commission from violinist Carolyn Huebl and the Blakemore Trio - works for violin & piano; piano trio; and piano trio plus soprano (Botti) - which will premiere in the 08-09 season at Vanderbilt University and at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. She will be featured as a composer and singer on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella series in the 07-08 season in a concert honoring Steven Stucky's 20th anniversary as the LA Phil's Composer in Residence.
Botti specializes in the performance of contemporary music by composers of diverse styles, including: Gubaidulina, Crumb, Kurtag, Cage, Chihara, Pintscher, and Partch, among others. Composer/conductor Tan Dun created several major works, which highlight her vocal and theatrical talents. She premiered his Red Forecast for soprano and orchestra with the BBC Scottish Symphony and performed that work's U.S. premiere at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra. Tan Dun also wrote the role of "Water" for her in his internationally renowned opera, Marco Polo (Sony Classical) which she premiered at the Muenchener Biennale, and subsequently performed in Europe and Asia, and at the New York City Opera. She can also be heard in Tan Dun's soundtrack of "The Banquet".
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Botti's early training included studies in music, art and theater. She received her Bachelor of Music from the Berklee School in Boston; and her Masters in Music Composition from the Manhattan School of Music. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and grants from Meet The Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Aaron Copland Fund, The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The NY Foundation for the Arts, The Greenwall Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, ASCAP, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts. A member of the Composition faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor from 2000-2006, she currently serves on the Composition faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in NYC and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Music Center.
www.susanbotti.com
William Rhoads
Currently Director of Marketing for the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Bill Rhoads was President and Managing Director of Bill Rhoads and Associates, New York, NY, which represented the interests of Frank Zappa, Michael Torke, John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Arabesque Records, ECS Music Publishers, and C.F. Peters, along with a host of other prominent artists and firms in the music industry. Prior to opening his own firm, Mr. Rhoads was Director of the Concert Music Division for Carl Fischer, LLC in New York.
He has been active as board member of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, founder/director of the Ear and Now and 99¢ Concert Series', and co-director of Composers Concordance and E.A.R. (Elastic Arts Room) in New York City. In addition, Mr. Rhoads served the music industry as Board Member for CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.), and the MPA (Music Publishers Association), as Honorary Advisory Board Member for The Women's Philharmonic, and as panel member, speaker and judge on numerous committees for organizations serving the needs of composers, educators, and performers, including ASCAP, MENC, and the American Symphony Orchestra League.
An accomplished composer, Mr. Rhoads has an extensive background in audio engineering, arranging, composition (private studies with Stephen Dembski, John Corigliano, George Rochberg, and John Harbison), and philosophy and continues to be active as a composer and concert producer in the New York area. www.oslmusic.org
Su Lian Tan
One of the most sought-after composers and flutists, Su Lian Tan's music has been described as "the stunner of the evening" by The Washington Post.
Musically gifted, she made her first recordings as a flutist by age fourteen. By age seventeen, she was both a Fellow and Licentiate of the Trinity College, London. She has appeared with orchestras and ensembles worldwide. Her performances and performance of her music have been featured on radio's Morning Pro Musica, Dutch public radio, CBC radio, and many more. She has performed at Lincoln Center with many ensembles.
Numerous ensembles have commissioned her, including the Grammy-winning Takacs String Quartet, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the New Juilliard Ensemble. Moo Shu Rap Wrap, written for the Meridian Arts Ensemble, has been toured for eight seasons throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America and recorded. Additionally, Ms. Tan has performed with them in Amsterdam, The Hague, Germany, and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
Recent commissions and performances include a second quartet for the Takacs, a chamber opera composed with poet Anne Babson, the premiere of a work for Donald Berman/Dinosaur Annex and also a work for celebrated mime Yass Hakoshima and the Da Capo Chamber Players. Her work has been featured at the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Festival, Summergarden at MOMA, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall, among others.
As Professor of Music and former Chairman of the Music Department at Middlebury College, she is known for her unique musical perspective and connecting to her students through the exploration of all kinds of music. In addition to teaching composition, she also coaches, conducts, and coordinates both student and professional concerts and recitals.
Ms. Tan has garnered numerous distinctions, including grants from Meet the Composer, American Music Center, and the Argosy Foundation, awards from ASCAP, an Irving Berlin Scholarship award, Naumberg Fellowship, and a Vermont Music Teachers Association award. In addition to being the Chair of the Editorial Committee of Vox Nova Media for the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, she has been guest lecturer at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Dartmouth College, University of Colorado School of Music, among others. She holds degrees from at Princeton University, the Juilliard School, and Bennington College. Her music is published by the Theodore Presser Company.
Scott Dunn
Conductor and pianist, Scott Dunn, made his distinguished 1999 Carnegie Hall debut with the American Composers Orchestra playing his own orchestration of Vernon Duke's 'lost' 1923 Piano Concerto. An assistant conductor for Pittsburgh opera, he has previously held posts with Glimmerglass Opera, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Music Festival of the Hamptons. Dunn's distinguished musical mentors include Lukas Foss, Byron Janis, Leonard Rosenman and Brooks Smith, among others, and his diverse education includes musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music and Aspen, as well as an M.D. from the University of Iowa and board certification in eye surgery.
Recent conducting engagements include the world premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's "The Garden" for Glimmerglass Opera, student matinees of "Billy Budd" and "Romeo & Juliette" for Pittsburgh Opera, Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" at Lincoln Center, Williamson's "Happy Prince" for Kentucky Opera, George Plimpton's "Animal Tales" for Atlantic Center of the Arts, "La Boheme", "Kleine Mahagonny" and a Ricky Ian Gordon revue for Teatro Giotto in Vicchio, Italy, as well as guest conducting appearances with the North Carolina Symphony, the Orchestre National in Lyon France, and appearances in Eastern Europe and Latin America.
As a pianist, Dunn is a noted collaborator and prize-winning advocate of solo contemporary music who began his professional career in Los Angeles with a 1993 solo recital at Japan America Theater - a performance that prompted raves from the LA Times. Of his April 2007 appearance on the Jacaranda series, the LA Times noted that Dunn's performance was "suave, masterly, insouciant, nostalgic and exuberant…absolutely riveting."
Dunn's solo recording of the complete piano works of Lukas Foss was released by Naxos in 2005 and prompted the New Yorker to write… "a delightful new disk. Dunn's playing - lean, incisive, occasionally flamboyant - has just the touch this music needs." Other recent recording projects include the pre-production recording Mark Adamo's opera"Lysistrata, a producer credit on Danny Elfman's "Serenada Schizophrana" for Sony, an acclaimed 2006 Decca release of Gershwin's original 1935 version of "Porgy and Bess" which Dunn helped to research, reconstruct and prepare for John Mauceri and the Nashville Symphony. His new Naxos recording of the Duke piano concerto and other works with Dmitry Yablonsky and the Russian Philharmonic was just released. www.scott-dunn.com
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