The faculty of the Jacobs School of Music Composition Department is pleased to announce results for the following annual internal competitions.

2016 DEAN’S PRIZE COMPOSITION COMPETITION

Category A (Orchestra or Wind Ensemble, $500 prize):
Phillip Sink, After Images, for orchestra

Category B (Chamber/Ensemble, $1000 prize and commission for a new work to be premiered by the New Music Ensemble in 2014-15):
Grant Luhmann, Grodek, for baritone & sinfonietta

Category C (Undergraduate, $300 prize):
Grant Luhmann, Grodek, for baritone & sinfonietta

Category D (Electronic, $300 prize):
Phillip Sink, To See in Color

2015 GEORGINA JOSHI COMPOSITION COMMISSION AWARD
($1000 prize and commission for a new work for voice and ensemble to be premiered by the New Music Ensemble in 2014-15):
Corey Rubin, In the Name of the Bee, for baritone, oboe, viola & piano

2015 MRS. HONG PHAM MEMORIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS FOR NEW MUSIC PERFORMANCE ($500, $300, and $200 prizes):

$500, Robin Meiksins, flute
$300, Isaac Allen, violin
$200, Paul Mortilla, conductor, violin, voice

Alex Blank's 2015 Double Exposure collbatoration with Javier Ramierz and Nico Useche, Printed Memories, recieved the award for "Best Experimental Short" in the 2016 Toronto Film Festival. Additionally, the film has been selected to be shown in the Blowup Film Festival in Chicago, and is currently being considered for several other film festivals.

Melody Eötvös' House of the Beehives is the winner of the 2016 Left Coast Composition Contest. Left Coast will perform the piece in the 2016-17 season. Founded in 1992, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble communicates with audiences through inspiring performances of new and old chamber music. By embracing both musics, they enrich the audience’s experience — they reawaken a feeling of immediacy in performances of familiar masterpieces and reveal the powerful expressive intentions in the music of our time. The ensemble’s twelve musicians, many of whom have played together since the 1980s, perform in different combinations, using strings, winds, guitar and piano to present a wide range of repertoire.

Jihyun's piano piece, Three Etudes, has been performed by pianist Hsin-I Huang, at The Firehouse Space, NY on March 18. Upcoming, Jihyun's Extempore Anamnesis will be performed by PUBLIQuartet on April 25 at First Church of Boston.

Keith Fitch (BM '89, MM '92, DMA '95) has been awarded the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award, established by C.F. Peters Corporation, is given to a gifted American composer and carries with it the publication of a work by C. F. Peters. Recent performances of Fitch's music include In Memory by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Matthew Kraemer, conductor, as part of the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, and the Indiana University-South Bend Philharmonic, Jameson Cooper, conductor; the premiere of a piano quartet, Last Words, by members of the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty and The Cleveland Orchestra; and multiple performances of Dancing the Shadows by the Ars Futura ensemble.

On April 15th, James Aikman received the premiere of his "filmic oratorio", Peacemakers, by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra with . James has been in residence with the ICO since 2013, and this performance is the second of a grand scale composed for the orchestra. The 80-minute work is divisible into 15 sections, each focused around a different figure dedicated to their vision of a peaceful world. Read more...

Marjorie Rusche's Middletown Chronicles will be premiered by the Masterworks Chorale in Muncie, IN on May 14th. The piece celebrates Muncie as "America's Middletown", and chronicles the highlights of small-town, midwestern America through libretto founded in documents and letters from 1920's Muncie.