2019 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Awards Announced

ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams today announced the recipients of the 2019 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, which encourage talented young creators of concert music ranging in age from 10 to 30. The 2019 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards composer/judges were: Timo Andres, Martha Mooke, Tamar Muskal, Jeffrey Scott, Robert Sirota, and Edward Smaldone.

The 21 recipients of the 2019 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards are listed with their age, current city and state of residence, and the titles of their award-winning compositions which are linked, where possible, to audio recordings of them (for the youngest winners, only the state of residence is given):

• Tomek Arnold (28, Buffalo, NY): Non-aggressive Music Deterrent (for flute, cello and vibraphone with megaphone and sampler) [7′]
• Corey Chang (22, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY): Persephone Abducted (for orchestra) [12′]
• Tommy Dougherty (28, Pittsburgh, PA): Restrung (for orchestra) [9′]
• Jack Frerer (24, New York, NY): On-Again, Off-Again (for orchestra) [7’30”]
• Ilaria Loisa Hawley (10, NY): Spectrum (for flute, violin and viola/voice) [6’58”]
• Will Healy (29, New York, NY): Cityscapes (for female voice and 5 rappers, with chamber ensemble featuring improvised saxophone and violin soloists) [37′]
• Adam Karelin (18, Los Angeles, CA): Constructs (for orchestra) [3′]
• Jihyun Kim (30, Ithaca, NY): Once Upon a Time… (for Pierrot sextet) [9′]
• Soomin Kim (23, Oberlin, OH): conjunctions (for soprano saxophone, C trumpet, piano, percussion, electric guitar, and double bass) [7′]
• Leo Major (16, CA): black earth (for Pierrot sextet) [7’30”]
• Marc Migó (25, New York, NY): Double Concerto (for violin and piano soloists with orchestra) [26′]
• Jordan Millar (12, NY): Boogie Down Uptown (for orchestra) [3’08”]
• Nathan Paek (15, WA): On the Life Cycle of Pacific Salmon (for flute, marimba, piano, violin, and cello) [6′]
• Jules Pegram (27, Los Angeles CA): Higher Ground (an opera in one act for 2 sopranos, 2 mezzo-sopranos, tenor, 2 baritones and SATB chorus, with wind quintet, string quintet, harp, piano, and percussion) [60′]
• Nina Shekhar (23, Los Angeles, CA): blush (solo soprano and SSAATTBB choir) [10′]
• Akshaya Avril Tucker (26, Austin, TX): Three Songs (for Hindustani voice, soprano, wind quintet, piano, harp, percussion, string quartet, and double bass) [29’30”]
• Liliya Ugay (28, New Haven, CT): Point of Entry (for alto or countertenor solo, SATB choir, and chamber orchestra with harpsichord) [8’30”]
• Logan Vrankovic (22, Astoria, NY): Piano Concerto No. 1 (for piano and orchestra) [28’30”]
• Benjamin Webster (22, Coral Gables, FL): Junction (for chamber orchestra) [9′]
• Sam Wu (23, New York, NY): Wind Map (for orchestra) [10′]
• Jihwan Yoon (21, Elmhurst, NY): Sonata (for solo piano) [13′]

In addition, 9 composers received Honorable Mention:

• Benjamin Beckman (18, Los Angeles, CA): light pours through the quiet interstices and we measure this transient world (for string quartet) [7’30”]
• Dan Caputo (27, Los Angeles, CA): Liminal (for orchestra) [10′]
• Anthony Constantino (24, Los Angeles, CA): Sinfonia (for string orchestra) [8′]
• Stella G. Gitelman Willoughby (18, Cambridge, MA): Accents of Thunder (for orchestra) [18′]
• Marco A. Jimenez (16, FL): Tapestries (for solo organ) [16’30”]
• Haeon Lee (12, NY): Right Beneath the Clouds (for clarinet, cello, and piano) [2’12”]
• Iván Enrique Rodríguez (28, West New York, NJ): A Metaphor for Power (for orchestra) [12′]
• James Takashi Tabata (24, Austin, TX): Nagare (for SATB [two of each voice], two flutes, alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, organ, melodica, tabla, and string nonet) [14′]
• Shelley Washington (27,Princeton, NJ): The Farthest (for SSSAAA choir, violin, viola, cello, double bass, baritone saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and drum set) [8’30”]

Established in 1979 with funding from the Jack and Amy Norworth Fund, The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards grant cash prizes to concert music composers up to 30 years of age whose works are selected through a juried national competition. These composers may be American citizens, permanent residents, or students possessing US Student Visas. To honor his lifelong commitment to encouraging young creators, the program was dedicated to Morton Gould’s memory following his death in 1996. Gould himself was a child prodigy whose first composition was published by G. Schirmer when he was only six years of age; he later became a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. He served as President of ASCAP and The ASCAP Foundation from 1986 – 1994.