NEW YORK, March 30, 2017: The ASCAP Foundation President Paul Williams today announced the recipients of the 2017 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, which encourage talented young creators of concert music.
“Nurturing young talent is an essential part of The ASCAP Foundation’s mission,” said Paul Williams. "We congratulate these gifted young composers ranging in age from 15 to 30 and thank our dedicated panel of ASCAP members who selected the composers from approximately 550 submissions.”
The ASCAP composer/judges were: Samuel Adler, Valerie Coleman, Daniel Felsenfeld, Martin Kennedy, Lowell Liebermann, Daniel Trueman, Matthew Van Brink, and Aleksandra Vrebalov.
The 2017 Morton Gould Young Composer Award recipients are listed with their current residence, and place of origin. The youngest recipients are listed by state of residence:
Julia Adolphe of Los Angeles, CA (New York, NY); Eugene Birman of Oakland, CA (Moscow, Russia); Yuri Boguinia of Princeton, NJ (Stavropol, Russia); Ryan Chase of Hamilton, NY (Port Jefferson, NY); Chen Yihan of New York, NY (Changzhou, China); Tommy Dougherty of Los Angeles, CA (Pittsburgh, PA); Michael-Thomas Foumai of Honolulu, HI; Paul Frucht of New York, NY (Danbury, CT); Saad Haddad of Northridge, CA (Augusta, GA); William Healy of Brooklyn, NY (New York, NY); Alexander Hurvitz of CA; Tengku Irfan of New York, NY (Malaysia); Egemen Kesikli of Boulder, CO (Diyarbakir,Turkey); Scott Lee of Durham, NC (St. Petersburg, FL); Li Qi of Bloomington, Indiana (Beijing, China); Patrick O’Malley of Los Angeles, CA (Detroit, MI); Jules Pegram of Ann Arbor, MI (Richmond, VA); J.P. Redmond of NY and Dale Trumbore of Los Angeles, CA (Chatham, NJ).
The following composers received Honorable Mention (the youngest recipients are listed by state of residence): Jake Bean of Puyallup, WA (Ellensburg, WA); T.J. Cole of Philadelphia, PA (Athens, GA); Gabriel Crist of NC; Alistair Coleman of Washington, DC; Juan Pablo Contreras of Los Angeles, CA (Guadalajara, Mexico); Nathan Fletcher of Staten Island, NY (New Haven, CT); Andrew Guo of IL; Natsumi Osborn of TX; Ivan Specht of NY; Felipe Tovar- Henao of Bloomington, IN (Manizales, Colombia) and Vu Dang Minh Anh of Rochester, NY (Warsaw, Poland).
Established as The ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Awards in 1979 with funding from the Jack and Amy Norworth Fund, the program grants 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.
Among the prizes are the Leo Kaplan Award, in memory of the distinguished attorney who served as ASCAP Special Distribution Advisor, and the Charlotte V. Bergen Scholarshipfor a composer 18 years of age or younger. The ASCAP Foundation Irving Caesar Fundand The ASCAP Foundation Jack and Amy Norworth Fund provide additional funding for the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Irving Caesar was best known as the lyricist of “Tea for Two” and “Swanee.” Jack Norworth wrote such standards as "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
Morton Gould, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, served as President of ASCAP and The ASCAP Foundation from 1986 – 1994. Morton Gould, an eminent and versatile American composer, was a child prodigy whose first composition was published by G. Schirmer when he was only six years of age. To honor Gould’s lifelong commitment to encouraging young creators, the annual ASCAP Foundation Young Composer program was dedicated to his memory, following his death in 1996.
About The ASCAP Foundation
Founded in 1975, The ASCAP Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops, grants, scholarships, awards, recognition and community outreach programs, and public service projects for senior composers and lyricists. The ASCAP Foundation is supported by contributions from ASCAP members and from music lovers throughout the United States. www.ascapfoundation.org
