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January 14, 2005
Five Composers Receive
Special Distinction
The winner of the 25th annual ASCAP Foundation Rudolf
Nissim Award was announced today by Marilyn Bergman,
President of The ASCAP Foundation. The Nissim Prize
has been awarded to Andrew Norman for Sacred Geometry,
a 10-minute work for orchestra, selected from amongst
nearly 300 submissions. Norman will receive a prize
of $5,000.
 A recent graduate of the University of Southern California
Thornton School of Music, Norman completed both his
undergraduate and graduate studies there, earning
an MM in composition in 2004, and a BM summa cum
laude two years prior to that. Currently teaching
piano and composition at the Pasadena Conservatory
of Music, he has received commissions by the William
Kappell Piano Foundation, the Modesto Symphony, the
California State University Stanislaus Symphony,
and the New York Youth Symphony. Sacred Geometry,
commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony was also
selected for the Minnesota Orchestra Composers’ Institute
Readings. Norman has received the 2004 Jacob Druckman
Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, two ASCAP Foundation
Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, as well as top
honors in the National Federation of Music Clubs
Composition Contest, the Music Teachers National
Association Composition Contest, and the University
of Southern California Undergraduate Symposium for
Scholarly and Creative Work. Norman has served as
a composition master class fellow at the Aspen Music
Festival, as a two-time composition fellow at the
Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum
of the East, and a composer-in-residence for the
National Youth Orchestra Festival. His works have
been performed throughout the United States, as well
as in Canada, England, France and Japan. Norman maintains
an active performing schedule, recently appearing
with the USC Contemporary Music Ensemble at Walt
Disney Hall as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s
Green Umbrella series, and also with the Ensemble
Green, a Los Angeles-based new music group.
The Nissim Jury recognized five composers for Special
Distinction: Timothy Andres of Washington, CT for Symphony
No. 1, duration 40 minutes; Devin Arrington of Pittsburgh,
PA for La Via Dolorosa, duration 10 minutes; Arnold
Freed of New York, NY for Alleluia for Orchestra, duration
9 minutes; Michael Karp of New York, NY for Affirmation
for Strings, duration 8 minutes; and Michael Wittgraf
of Grand Forks, ND for A Marriage of Seasons, duration
10 minutes.
The Jury also recognized the following composers
for Honorable Mention: Peter Kelsh of New York, NY
for Serenade for Oboe and Orchestra, duration 24 minutes;
and Zhou Tian of Philadelphia, PA for The Palace
of Nine Perfections, duration 9 minutes.
The judges for this year’s Nissim Award were:
Emily Freeman Brown, Director of Orchestral Studies
and Music Director of Opera Theater at Bowling Green
State University, and President of the Conductors Guild;
Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director and Conductor of
the Eugene Symphony Orchestra; and Mark Laycock, Associate
Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Music
Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (NJ) and
Artistic Director of the Lake Placid Sinfonietta.
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.
ASCAP
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