The ASCAP Foundation President Marilyn
Bergman has announced the recipients of the 2003 ASCAP
Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.
Congratulating the winners, Marilyn Bergman
said, “The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young
Composer Awards encourage and nurture gifted young composers.
This year, our winners range from 11 to 30 years of
age. These young creators represent the future of American
concert music. We congratulate the recipients and extend
our appreciation to the dedicated ASCAP composer panel
that selected the winners from amongst 500 worthy submissions.”
Established in 1979, this ASCAP Foundation
program recognizes composers up to 30 years of age whose
works are selected through a juried national competition.
Morton Gould, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, served
as President of ASCAP and The ASCAP Foundation from
1986 – 1994. Gould, an eminent and versatile American
composer, was a child prodigy whose first composition
was published by G. Schirmer when he was just six years
of age. To honor Gould’s lifelong commitment to
encouraging young creators, the annual ASCAP Foundation
Young Composer program was dedicated to his memory,
following his death in 1996. The winning composers share
prizes of over $30,000, including the Leo Kaplan Award,
honoring the distinguished jurist who served for twenty-eight
years as ASCAP Special Distribution Advisor, and a grant
from the DeVries Fund for our youngest creators from
K-12 grade.
The 2003 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards
recipients are: Judah Adashi of Boston, MA; Patrick
Burke of Pittsburgh, PA; Anthony Cheung of
San Francisco, CA; Avner Dorman of Tel-Aviv,
Israel; Michael Djupstrom of St. Paul, MN; Matthew
Fuerst of Covina, CA; Jeremy Gill of Philadelphia,
PA; Stewart Goodyear of Toronto, CA; Lane
Harder of Houston, TX; Daniel Kellogg
of Wilton, CT; Martin Kennedy of Tuscaloosa,
AL; Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum of New York,
NY; Andrew Lee of Charleston, SC; Christopher
Lee of Akron, OH; John Mackey of New Philadelphia,
OH; Eli Marshall of Waterville, ME; Nico Muhly
of Randolph, VT; Daniel Ott of Neptune City,
NJ; David Plylar of Peoria, AZ; Philip Rothman
of Buffalo, NY; Huang Ruo of Hai Nan Island,
China; Matthew Van Brink of Port Jefferson, NY;
Dalit Warshaw of New York, NY; and Orianna
Webb of Akron, OH.
The following composers were recognized
with Honorable Mention: Mark Berger of New Ulm, MN;
Kyle Blaha of Rochester, NY; Jennifer Graham of Oakland,
CA; Robert Gross of Escondido, CA; John Hedges of Wilmington,
DE; Vera Ivanova of Moscow, Russia; Angel Lam of Hong
Kong, China; Sean McClowry of Rockford, IL; Keith Murphy
of Cambridge, UK; Edward Niedermaier of Lake Minnetonka,
MN; Andrew Norman of Grand Rapids, MI; and Gordon Williamson
of Ottawa, CA.
The ASCAP Foundation has made special
Awards for composers under the age of 19: Timothy
Andres (age 17) of Litchfield County, CT; Peter
Asimov (age 11) of New York, NY; Julia Scott
Carey (age 16) of Wellesley, MA; Ryan Gallagher
(age 18) of Wooster, OH; Kevin Kim (age 13) of
Bergen County, NJ; Anna Lindemann (age 17) of
Boulder, CO; Marcus Macauley (age 17) of Mercer
Island, WA; and Natasha Sinha (age 12) of Milton,
MA.
The following composers received Honorable
Mention: Kit Armstrong (age 11) of Los Angeles,CA; Kyumin
Lee (age 10) of Lexington,MA; Tudor Dominik Maican (age
14) of Bethesda, MD; Michael Summa (age 18) of Dunmore,
PA; Emilia Tamurri (age 17) of Maplewood, NJ; Joseph
Trapanese (age 18) of Jersey City, NJ; and Milena Zhivotovska
(age 17) of Kiev, Ukraine.
The six ASCAP composer/judges for the
2003 competition were: Samuel Adler; Derek Bermel; Lisa
Bielawa; Martin Bresnick; Chris Theofanidis; and Melinda
Wagner.
The
ASCAP Foundation supports the American composer
and the development of American music through educational
programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops,
grants to young composers, music education programs,
and public service projects for senior composers and
lyricists. The ASCAP Foundation is supported by contributions
from ASCAP members and music lovers throughout the United
States.
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the world's
largest performing right organization, with over 150,000
composer, lyricist and music publisher members. ASCAP
is committed to protecting the rights of its members
by licensing and collecting royalties for the public
performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing
these fees to the Society's members based on performances.
ASCAP's repertory spans the entire spectrum of music
-- from pop to symphonic, rock to gospel, Latin to country
to jazz, rhythm and blues, theater, film and television
music. ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely
of writers and publishers, elected by the membership.