News and Notices

Dear Colleagues & Friends,

I hope everyone remains well during this difficult time. Please stay safe.

Finalists (and many winners) have been announced in the 2019-20 contests of The American Prize. Additional 2020 winners will be announced this month. (Applications for 2020-21—our tenth year—are being accepted now with relaxed requirements, rule changes and deadline extensions in response to the pandemic, making it easier to apply. Complete information at http://www.theamericanprize.org/)

Here are some current results that may be of interest. Each link takes you to the appropriate posting on The American Prize blog, where additional listings may be found: http://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/ I would be happy to answer any questions.

CHORAL CONDUCTORS
winners, 2020: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/07/winners-conductors-chorus-2019-20.html
finalists, 2020: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/04/finalists-conductors-choral-divisions.html

OPERA CONDUCTORS
finalists: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/05/finalists-conductors-opera-division.html

CHORUSES
finalists: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/04/finalists-choral-ensembles-2019-20.html

OPERA COMPANIES
winners: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/06/winners-opera-companies-2019-20.html

AMERICAN MUSIC (Bacon Award):
finalists (ensembles): http://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/06/finalists-bacon-award-american-music_19.html
finalists (soloists and composers): https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/06/finalists-bacon-award-american-music.html

COMPOSERS of CHORAL MUSIC:
winners, 2020 (major works): https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/06/winners-composers-major-choral-works.html
winners, 2020 (shorter works): https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/06/winners-composers-shorter-choral-works.html

COMPOSERS of MUSIC for OPERA/THEATER/FILM/DANCE:
winners, 2020: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2020/04/winners-composers-opera-theater-film.html

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the musical and theater arts.

The American Prize is nonprofit, unique in scope and structure, and is designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings. There is no live competition.

The American Prize has attracted thousands of qualified contestants from all fifty states since its founding, has awarded nearly $100,000 in prizes in all categories since 2010, and is presented annually in many areas of the performing arts.

All best,
David

David Katz, founder & chief judge
The American Prize
http://www.theamericanprize.org/
http://www.museoffiretheplay.org/

We are reaching out to all to help with our Fundraiser!

https://sabelanimusic.wixsite.com/sabelanimusic/fundraiser

About our Project!

Our Goal?
1.. Focus on Grade 1 to Grade 3 Music education during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2.. We will employ the services of a tutor to hold classes with our enrolled singers for a 3 hour class each day

How will we get there?
1. The funding will allow us to purchase 20 tablets – 5 members per Focal Point
2. The tablet will contain all the music theory they will need for their classes
3. The tablet will have a data SIM card
4. Provide these 20 members with a melodica to use when required

What are the objectives?
1. Meeting portal with no limitations
2. Data will no longer be an issue as they can attend classes virtually in teams each day for 3 hours
3. When it is time for practical’s they will sing and record themselves and submit to their tutor who will coach and make corrections
4. We will continue with this virtual learning and assessment for 3 years until graduation
5. In the new year the next phase will be adopted
6. The first 20 singers will graduate as the First Virtual COVID-19 Programme Graduates!
7. All examinations are done online through the Royal Academy of Music, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5HT
www.ram.ac.uk

What is the benefit?
• Artists will be certified in the Choral Trade
• Receive a fee for each performance and be influenced financially and psychologically
• There will be change in our community where women and youth will participate in the job market and be qualified to compete for opportunities through a community initiative
• We will have our finances audited for more grants and be self-sufficient in pursing our vision to create opportunities through Choral Music in the Nation Building strategy
• We will deliver the first qualified choral music singers certified to be Choral Practitioners with similar opportunities to partake in the employment market

Use of Proceeds

The beneficiaries of this Project will benefit : • Educationally – Financially

Direct beneficiaries : • 94 Women and 79 Men (37 are students at school, college or university)

How will they benefit :
• This education will allow them to be in a position of negotiating a decent performance fee
• Reduction of youth with no post matric qualifications in our community
• First group of music graduates against all odds including the COVID19 pandemic
• Direct positive outcomes through education for our community from a community initiative that is created for the youth to change their lives and go back through human cohesion and plant the knowledge in their communities

What is needed to reach this goal :
• 20 Tablets (5 per Focal Point)
• 20 Sim Cards and Data for the above

PLEASE HELP US TO REACH OUR DREAMS OF GRADUATION!

Tucson-based True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s Music Director Eric Holtan has assembled a Playlist that explores the beauty and tenderness of blossoms and meadows with works by Britten, Paulus, Whitacre, Corigliano’s setting of Dylan Thomas’s Fern Hill and more.

Listen and learn more here: http://www.trueconcord.org/2020/04/09/playlist/.

To hear the playlist on YouTube, click here:

Click here to listen on Spotify:

Dear PROJECT : ENCORE followers,

As always, it is a great joy to announce this quarter’s marvelous new compositions accepted into the PROJECT : ENCORE Catalog of Contemporary Choral Music:

Al Hanisim by Joshua Fishbein
Be Brave by Kevin T. Padworski
Birds at Winter Nightfall by Karen P. Thomas
Eat your vegetables! by John Meuhleisen
Flower Lullaby by Lorri Froggét
The Giver of Stars by Donald M. Skirvin
It’s up to You by Andrew Bruhn
Kyrie (From Missa Dramatica) by Christopher Lee Fraley
Music Dei Donum – Music From God is Given by Christopher J. Hoh
Oseh Shalom (O You who makes peace) by Gerald Cohen
A Present From a Small Distant World by Alex Eddington
Search by Caroline Mallonee
Solstice by Andrew Jacobson
Take Me Back: A New American Folk Song by Steve Danielson
Venite Carpe Noctem by Christopher Rust

Particular welcome to Steve Danielson, Alex Eddington, Laurie Froggét and Kevin Padworski, all of whom are new to the P:E Catalog. Congratulations to all on these endorsements!

Each of these selections has been blind-vetted by at least three of the prominent conductors who serve in our pool of reviewers.An average of just over half of all post-premiere compositions submitted are accepted into the P:E Catalog. Congratulations, all!

CONDUCTORS are urged to sign up to receive the quarterly report, for regular updates on new repertoire! projectencore.org

COMPOSERS are urged to submit compositions that have been premiered, but have not been extensively performed beyond the premiere–as frequently as one per quarter–for review and possible upload into the prestigious PROJECT : ENCORE database

In the hopes that you will have some sort of choir this coming school year, either in person or online, here are several pieces that work well with medium level high school and college SATB choirs, accompanied by either keyboard or medium level strings, composed by Giacomo Puccini “senior”, the great great grandfather of the more famous opera composer. Published by Hinshaw Music.

Reaching out to musicians and audiences around the world

Featuring Jack Adler-McKean, Nadine Benjamin, Rolf Hind, Matthew Kaner, Loré Lixenberg, Anton Lukoszevieze, Eliza McCarthy, Elaine Mitchener, Darragh Morgan, Janet Oates, Aisha Orazbayeva, Yshani Perinpanayagam, Gweneth Rand, Matthew Schlomovitz, Tom Service, Frances Marie Uitti and Héloïse Werner

A weekend of workshops, interviews and performances
Welcome evening on Friday 24th July
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July
+ midweek options leading to presentations
On Saturday 1st August

www.coma.org/summer-school