Last modified: Wednesday, May 25, 2011
National composer awards go to five IU Jacobs School of Music students and alumni
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Two Indiana University Jacobs School of Music composition students, two alumni and one incoming student have been named winners in the 59th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards competition.
The Jacobs-affiliated contingent captured five of the 11 awards that went to young classical composers ranging in age from 14 to 27.
The BMI Foundation, Inc. held its annual Student Composer Awards May 13 at the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel in New York City. Pictured are (back row) Benjamin D. Taylor; Mena Mark Hanna; David Hertzberg; Francisco Castillo Trigueros; Michael-Thomas Alexander Foumai; (front row) David Werfelmann; William Frederick Rowe; BMI Foundation, Inc. President Ralph Jackson; BMI President & CEO Del Bryant; BMI Student Composer Award Chair Ellen Taaffe Zwilich; Yeeren I. Low; Jonathan L. Posthuma; Eric Guinivan; and Ryan Chase.
Jacobs School of Music students Ryan Chase, 24, and William Rowe, 19; alumni Eric Guinivan and David Werfelmann; and incoming doctoral student Benjamin Taylor, all 27, received the awards May 13 at a reception in New York City.
Chase also was named the winner of the William Schuman Prize, which is awarded to the score judged "most outstanding" in the competition, for his Gold Rush for five violins.
Werfelmann and Guinivan both study at the University of Southern California.
In 2007, three Jacobs School students and one alumnus walked away with BMI Student Composer Awards.
"Held annually since 1951, the BMI Student Composer Awards are perhaps the most prestigious of the young composer contests in the Western Hemisphere," said David Dzubay, chair of the Composition Department in the IU Jacobs School of Music and director of the New Music Ensemble.
The BMI Student Composer Awards recognize superior creative talent, and winners receive scholarship grants to be applied toward their musical education. In 2011, more than 500 manuscripts were submitted to the competition from throughout the Western Hemisphere, and all works were judged under pseudonyms. Cash awards totaled $21,000.
BMI has given 554 scholarship grants to young composers over the years, and many of today's most prominent and active classical composers received their first recognition from the BMI Student Composer Awards.
The competition is co-sponsored by BMI and the BMI Foundation, Inc. The BMI Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1985 to support the creation, performance and study of music through awards, scholarships, commissions and grants.
For a complete list of winners and their biographical information, go to: https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/551480.
