NEWS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 13,
2007
Contact: Karen S.
Lambert
Phone: 410.269.1132
ANNAPOLIS,
MD – The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra announces the advancement of four
finalists to the commissioning round in its 2007-2008 international Annapolis
Charter 300 Young Composers Competition. The four finalists represent a
diverse group of gifted composers that were selected from 111 international
applicants by the competition's first round jury of music professionals. The
selected finalists are 25 year-old composer Jacob Bancks of
Chicago, IL; 33 year-old Kristin Kuster of New York, NY; 25
year-old Dan Visconti of Arlington, VA; and 33
year-old Narong
Prangcharoen of
Bangkok, Thailand (also residing in Kansas City, MO). Each of
the finalists have won a $5,000 commission to write one new orchestral piece for
the ASO as a cultural celebration of the City of Annapolis' 300th Charter
Centennial in 2008. All four works
will be given World Premiere performances during the ASO's 2007-2008 Lexus
Classic Series concerts at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and judged in a
unique final round jury process to determine the winner of an additional $5,000
honorarium and recording opportunity. The Annapolis Charter 300 Young Composers
competition is made possible with a creative grant from the City of Annapolis
through the Art In Public Places Commission.
The
first round jury panel consisted of José-Luis Novo, ASO
Music Director; Kathryn
Alexander, Associate Professor of Music (Composition/Music
Technology), Yale University, Department of Music; Gabriela Lena Frank,
Composer; James Ross, Associate Professor of Conducting and
Director of Orchestral Activities, University of Maryland, School of
Music; and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Associate Professor of Composition,
University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music. From
January through March, the five members of the first round jury evaluated
representative musical scores and recordings by the 111 applicants, each
anonymously labeled without any personal identifying information. The 111 composers were narrowed to the
final four through a deliberation process agreed upon by the jurors
themselves.
As each
finalist's competition piece is premiered during the ASO’s 2007-2008 concerts, a
unique second round jury process will be used to determine the ultimate title
winner. The composer earning the
most votes from diverse sources, including music experts, musicians, and
audiences, will be named the winner, and receive an additional $5,000 cash prize
and the opportunity to have their work included on a planned Charter 300
Commemorative Recording by the orchestra in 2008, alongside masterworks marking
cultural history, composed in 1708, 1808, and 1908
respectively.
FINALIST
BIOGRAPHIES
Twenty-five year old JACOB BANCKS was born in Fairmont, Minnesota, and currently resides in Chicago, IL. He is currently completing commissions from the New York Youth Symphony (to premiere in Carnegie Hall, March 2008), oboist Gordon Hunt/International Double Reed Society, pianist William Phemister/Soli Deo Gloria, and the Hanson Institute for American Music. His music has been performed throughout North and South America. Upcoming performances are planned with Duo Quyana, the South Dakota Symphony, ViM Saxophone Quartet, and the Lute Song Project. Past commissions and performances include the Eastman Philharmonia, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Commission Project, OSSIA New Music, the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra, the Dakota Academy for Performing Arts, and Augustana College Theatre. He won a 2006 BMI Student Composer Award, a Century Fellowship (University of Chicago), the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize (Eastman), the Mary Baske and Stella Russell Prizes in music (Wheaton College), first prize in the Minnesota Music Teachers’ Association annual competition, and has been nominated for the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize. His teachers have included Shulamit Ran, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Augusta Read Thomas, and he recently completed a MM at Eastman School of Music, where he also studied piano with Vincent Lenti. He is currently working toward a doctorate at the University of Chicago, and he was recently named a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the U. S. Department of Education.
Thirty-three year old composer KRISTIN KUSTER "writes commandingly for the orchestra," and her music "has an invitingly tart edge,” wrote The New York Times. Kuster’s compositions take inspiration from architectural space, the weather, and mythology. Her "lush and visceral" Myrrha for voices and orchestra was premiered by American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in May 2006. Kuster also recently completed Interior for wind ensemble and Iron Diamond for orchestra. She is currently working on a piece inspired by ironwork designs of architect Louis Sullivan. Kuster was awarded a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Underwood Emerging Composer Commission from American Composers Orchestra. She has recently received commissions from a consortium of university wind ensembles organized by Michael Haithcock, as well as The Plymouth Symphony, 45th Parallel, Vox Early Music Ensemble, and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet. Kuster earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied with William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, and William Albright. She has taught as Visiting Lecturer of Composition, Theory, and Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan, and as Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition at Denison University, Ohio. She currently lives in New York City with her husband Andrew and son Odin.
Much of twenty-five year old composer DAN VISCONTI'S musical production has been informed by his background as an active jazz and rock guitarist. Inspired both by the directness of expression and maverick spirit of the American vernacular, his works often explore gritty timbres, complex textures, and propulsive rhythms—elements that tend to collide in unexpected ways with Visconti’s experience as a classically-trained violinist, resulting in a musical stance one national reviewer describes as “both mature and youthful, bristling with exhilarating musical ideas and a powerfully crafted lyricism.” Visconti studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music, primarily with Margaret Brouwer, Aaron Jay Kernis, Ezra Laderman, and Zhou Long. He is currently a faculty member of the Young Composers Program at CIM, a relatively new summer program that has attracted talented students from across the US and abroad. As an educator his commitment to engaging new audiences often involves unconventional venues and approaches; past projects include interactive videoconferencing presentations on the social history of music and civil rights in America as well as appearances at the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. His online web journal (hosted by Dartmouth's Hopkins Center for the Arts) detailed the compositional process in a multimedia experience that garnered attention from musicians and laypeople alike. Visconti’s compositions have been honored with awards from BMI, ASCAP, NACUSA, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well the Columbia-Bearns Prize. In addition to grants from the American Music Center, the Barlow Endowment, and Chamber Music America, he has been the recipient of artist fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Villa Montalvo, and Copland House, one of the youngest composers to receive these distinctions. Recent commissions include works for the Kronos Quartet, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Antares, the New York Youth Symphony, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Corigliano Quartet. Other recent performances include works featured by the Minnesota Orchestra, eighth blackbird, Brave New Works, and the Sybarite Quintet.
Call the ASO at 410-269-1132 for
more information.
# # #