DALLAS CHAMBER CHOIR, Jon Culpepper, music director, Dallas, TX, is the co-winner (with the choral ensemble mirabai, of East Lansing, MI) of The American Prize in Choral Performance, 2020, in the professional choral division. Dallas Chamber Choir was selected from applications reviewed recently from all across the United States. The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of non-profit competitions in the musical and theater arts, unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. The covid-extended deadline for applications to The American Prize contests for 2020-21 is Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Details on the website, http://www.theamericanprize.org/
Link to official announcement: http://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/07/winners-choruses-2020.html
The organization provided this biographical sketch:
Founded in 2014 by its artistic director and conductor, Jon L. Culpepper, The Dallas Chamber Choir delivers choral programs of stylistic, linguistic, and cultural significance with interest in works of contemporary and emerging composers whose music and texts explore a decidedly humanistic perspective. The professional ensemble of 24-30 singers, comprised of exceptional vocal talent with diverse careers, skills, and interests in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has collaborated with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Hans Zimmer, and Ramin Djawadi, score composer for the Grammy-nominated 2008 Marvel film, Iron Man, and the TV series, Game of Thrones and Prison Break, among others. DCC has released its debut album, Love Manifested (2018), and has recorded the Mozart Requiem with chamber orchestra at Moody Performance Hall in Dallas, Texas, due to release in 2019. https://dallaschamberchoir.org
Additional information about the competitions on the website:www.theamericanprize.org
For runners-up in this division and additional winners already announced in 2019-20 in other competitions, please follow this link:
http://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/
Winners of The American Prize receive cash prizes, professional adjudication and regional, national and international recognition based on recorded performances. In addition to monetary rewards and written evaluations from judges, winners are profiled on The American Prize websites, where links will lead to video and audio excerpts of artist performances.
THE AMERICAN PRIZE—History & Judges
The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts grew from the belief that a great deal of excellent music being made in this country goes unrecognized and unheralded, not only in our major cities, but all across the country: in schools and churches, in colleges and universities, and by community and professional musicians.
With the performing arts in America marginalized like never before, The American Prize seeks to fill the gap that leaves excellent artists and ensembles struggling for visibility and viability. The American Prize recognizes and rewards the best America produces, without bias against small city versus large, or unknown artist versus well-known.
David Katz is the chief judge of The American Prize. Professional conductor, award-winning composer, playwright, actor and arts advocate, he is author of MUSE of FIRE, the acclaimed one-man play about the art of conducting. Joining Katz in selecting winners of The American Prize is a panel of judges as varied in background and experience as we hope the winners of The American Prize will be. Made up of distinguished musicians representing virtually every region of the country, the group includes professional vocalists, conductors, composers and pianists, tenured professors, and orchestra, band and choral musicians.
“Most artists may never win a Grammy award, or a Pulitzer, or a Tony, or perhaps even be nominated,” Katz said, “but that does not mean that they are not worthy of recognition and reward. Quality in the arts is not limited to a city on each coast, or to the familiar names, or only to graduates of a few schools. It is on view all over the United States, if you take the time to look for it. The American Prize exists to encourage and herald that excellence.”
By shining a light on nationally recognized achievement, winners of The American Prize receive world-class bragging rights to use in promotion right at home. “If The American Prize helps build careers, or contributes to local pride, or assists with increasing the audience for an artist or ensemble, builds the donor base, or stimulates opportunities or recruitment for winning artists and ensembles, then we have fulfilled our mission,” Katz said.
The American Prize is administered by Hat City Music Theater, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit performing arts organization based in Danbury, Connecticut.
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