The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University proudly announces commission winners for 2020. After reviewing 689 submissions from 44 countries, the judging panel awarded Christopher Trapani of New York, NY, the $12,000 Barlow Prize to compose a major new song cycle for soprano and piano. A former winner of the Luciano Berio Rome Prize, Guadeamus, and a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, Trapani maintains an active career in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Continental Europe. Commissions have come from the BBC, the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and Radio France, and his works have been heard at Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Ruhrtriennale, IRCAM, and Wigmore Hall. Trapani describes his music as weaving “American and European stylistic strands into a personal aesthetic that defies easy classification. Snippets of Delta Blues, Appalachian folk, dance band foxtrots, shoegaze guitar effects, and Turkish makam [along with] spectral swells and meandering canons.”(www.christophertrapani.com)
In considering 286 applications in our General and LDS commissioning programs, the Endowment granted $83,000 to 15 composers who will write for the following ensembles and musicians:
Daniel Bradshaw (Dwight Bigler and the Virginia Tech Chamber Singers), Zosha Di Castri (Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble), Dylan Findley (Nathan Mensink and Russ Zokaites), Reiko Füting (Unheard-of//Ensemble), Carolina Heredia (Duo Axis), Joshua Hey (Daedalus Quartet), Andrew Lloyd (Eva Polgar), Julian Mansilla (The Uinta Trio), Haruhito Miyagi (Andrew Lloyd), Eric Nathan (Collage New Music), Carl Schimmel (Daedalus Quartet), Peter Shin (Friction Quartet), Annika Socolofsky (Bergamot Quartet), Robert Strobel (Playground Ensemble), and Nathan Thatcher (Attacca Quartet).
The judging panel included the Endowment’s Board of Advisors: Chen Yi, Neil Thornock, Dorothy Chang, Ben Sabey, and Benjamin Taylor. Stephen Jones served as a guest judge during the deliberations, and Miguel Chuaqui, Dan Lippel, and Steve Roens served as guest judges during the General Commission adjudicating. Tony Arnold, Sharon Harms, Carrie Henneman Shaw, and Diane Reich represented the performing consortia in selecting the Barlow Prize. Each of these sopranos will premiere the winning composer’s new work in 2022.
The Endowment wishes to thank all composers and ensembles that applied for commissions. Because of limited resources and keen competition among hundreds of applicants, the Endowment regrets they were unable to fund all worthy projects. Next year’s Barlow Prize will feature a new work for Sinfonietta. Details and parameters for this commission will be available in the future on our website and Facebook pages.
Very truly yours,
Ethan Wickman
Executive Director
Barlow Endowment
for Music Composition