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January 13, 2004
GEORGE ARASIMOWICZ NAMED 24th ANNUAL RECIPIENT
OF
THE ASCAP FOUNDATION RUDOLF NISSIM AWARD
FIVE COMPOSERS RECEIVE SPECIAL DISTINCTION
The winner of the 24th annual ASCAP
Foundation Rudolf Nissim Award was announced
by Marilyn Bergman, President of The ASCAP Foundation.
The Nissim Prize has been awarded to George Arasimowicz
for Encomia for ?, a 26 minute work for orchestra,
selected from amongst nearly 300 submissions. Arasimowicz
will receive a prize of $5,000.
 Formerly Dean of the Wheaton College
Conservatory of Music, Arasimowicz has been appointed
Dean of Arts, Media and Communications at Wheaton
College in Illinois. Arasimowicz resides in the
Chicago area. His awards include the Hecksher Foundation
Composition Prize; a Guggenheim Fellowship; Awards
from the Colorado Council on the Arts; the Kenneth
Davenport National Competition for Orchestral Works;
Fromm Foundation, and support from the National
Endowment for the Arts, Artslink/Soros Foundation,
Canada Council and the arts councils of Alberta,
Colorado, Illinois and Ontario. Arasimowicz’s
music has been commissioned by the Barlow Endowment,
the American Composers Forum, PBS, NPR and CBC
broadcasting networks. He has served on the faculties
of Southern California College, the University
of Alberta, the University of Colorado at Denver,
and Wheaton College. He earned his doctorate at
the University of California, San Diego and holds
degrees from McGill University, the University
of Toronto, and Carleton University with certificates
earned at the Chopin State Academy of Music (Warsaw,
Poland) through the Association of Universities
and Colleges of Canada and the Royal Conservatory
of Toronto.
The Nissim Jury recognized five composers
for Special Distinction: Jeremy Cumbo of Austin,
TX for Tenchi (Heaven and Earth) for Orchestra,
duration 11 minutes; Peter Knell of Pasadena, CA
for Rhythm Changes for Violin and Chamber Orchestra, duration 14 minutes; Andrew Norman of Modesto,
CA for Sacred Geometry for Orchestra, duration
10 minutes; Tracy Scott Silverman of Nashville,
TN for Electric Violin Concerto, duration 35 minutes;
and Orianna Webb of Akron, OH for Xylem for
Orchestra, duration 5 minutes.
The Jury also recognized the following
composers for Honorable Mention: James Croson of
Mount Dora, FL for Concerto for Piano, Percussion,
and Orchestra, duration 13 minutes; Jocelyn
Hagen of Valley City, ND for Ashes of Roses, a
Requiem
for Choir and Orchestra, duration 35 minutes; Robert
G. Hutchinson of Tacoma, WA for Dancing at
the Strand for Wind Ensemble, duration 7 minutes; Adam
Levowitz of Katy, TX for The Tell-Tale Heart for
Tenor and Orchestra, duration 25 minutes; John
Fitz Rogers of Columbia, SC for The Arc of
Winter for Clarinet and String Orchestra, duration 11
minutes; and Judith Lang Zaimont of Edina, MN for
Symphony for Wind Orchestra in Three Scenes, duration
23 minutes.
The judges for this year’s
Nissim Award were: Paul Lustig Dunkel, Music Director
and Conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic;
Paul Haas, Music Director of the New York Youth
Symphony; Barry Jekowsky, Founder and Music Director
of the California Symphony; and Mark Laycock, Associate
Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra,
and Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra
(NJ).
The Nissim Competition is funded
by The ASCAP Foundation, through a bequest of the
late Dr. Rudolf Nissim, former head of ASCAP’s
International Department. Nissim joined the ASCAP
staff immediately after emigrating to the United
States from Austria in 1940.
The
Nissim competition is open to all ASCAP composer
members with concert works requiring a conductor
that have not been professionally performed. To
encourage the professional premiere of the prize-winning
work, ASCAP makes supplementary funds available.
For more than twenty-five years, The ASCAP Foundation
has been dedicated to nurturing gifted composers,
and preserving our musical legacy by serving the
entire music community through a variety of educational,
professional and humanitarian programs.
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