by Nancy Bloomer Deussen
as published in the IAWM Journal, Fall 1997, pp. 18.
The International Alliance for Women in Music is pleased to announce the award winners in the 1997 Search for New Music. Laurie San Martin, first prize winner in the chamber music category, is a composition student of David Rakowski at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Stacy Garrop, one of two second-place winners in the chamber music category, is a previous Search for New Music prize winner; she was the 1995 recipient of first prize for an orchestral work. She is a student in the doctoral program at the School of Music of Indiana University, and she studies composition with Frederick Fox. Rona Siddiqui, who shares the second place chamber music award, is a composition student of Elaine Barkin at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Mary Jane King, recipient of the Zwilich Prize for a composer age 21 or younger, is a composition student at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and her professor of composition is James Vernon. HyeKyung Lee, winner of the Nancy Van de Vate Prize for Orchestral Music, is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in composition at the University of Texas at Austin. Her professor of composition is Russell F. Pinkston. HyeKyung was a recipient of the second prize in the general category in the 1996 SNM competition.
All submissions for the awards underwent a blind review process. Judges for the chamber music and Zwilich awards were as follows. I'lana Cotton, a San Francisco Bay Area free-lance composer and pianist specializing in improvised and multi-arts performance, is well known for her collaborations with other musicians, artists, dancers and choreographers in visual and theatrical media. Her works have been performed throughout the United States, and she is on the music faculties of the College of San Mateo and San Jose City College.
Dr. Michael Kimbell's compositions have been performed in cities across the United States and in Canada, and he is gaining increasing recognition as a composer of chamber music and children's operas, several of which have been produced in the Bay Area. Composer, pianist and conductor Carolyn Hawley, who resides in Half Moon Bay, California, teaches piano and composition and was conductor of the Ukiah Symphony (CA) for ten years. She has won numerous awards for her piano performances and compositions, and her works are performed widely.
The following served as judges for the Nancy Van de Vate Prize for Orchestral Music. Barbara Day Turner is Opera San Jose's resident conductor and the founder and music director of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, now in its seventh season. She is a champion of new music and premieres several new works each year. She has appeared as guest conductor with the San Jose Symphony and serves as clinician for many orchestral festivals. She also conducts the San Jose State University Symphony and Chamber Orchestra and lectures on conducting and harpsichord at the University. Lynn Shurtleff is a professor in the department of music at Santa Clara University in California. He has been the conductor of the 128-voice Santa Clara Chorale for 28 years and has taken the group on tour to Russia, Europe and Israel. His compositions, which number more than 200, have been performed throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe and have been presented on nationwide television in the United States and Russia.
Emily Ray, who studied conducting with Denis deCoteau, has conducted professional, community and youth ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area for two decades, and has premiered chamber and orchestral works of several area composers. She conducts the Nova Vista Symphony Orchestra and the Mission Chamber Orchestra and is a faculty member at Mission College in Santa Clara.
The IAWM offers its congratulations to the winners and its appreciation to the judges, to the coordinator, and to those who provided the funding for the awards. The deadline for the 1998 Search for New Music is May 1, 1998. The competition will include the Chamber Music and the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prizes; the Van de Vate Orchestral Prize will not be given. Details will be announced in the February issue of the Journal and will soon be available from coordinator Marilyn Shrude (Bowling Green State University). Search for New Music information will also appear on the IAWM web site and on the IAWM distribution list.
Nancy Bloomer Deussen, who served as coordinator of the Search for New Music, is a nationally-known San Francisco Bay Area composer whose works are published by Brazinmusikanta Publications among others and whose orchestral compositions are receiving an increasing number of performances. She was winner of the Britten-on-the-Bay Competition in 1996, and she is on the faculty at both Mission College and Santa Clara University.