Bangor & Rockland, Maine — The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award, now in its fourth year, is offering a $25,000 commission with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra through a juried national competition. The 2022 jury includes Pulitzer Prize-winner John Harbison, the groundbreaking composer Chen Yi, and acclaimed conductor André Raphel.
In its first three years, the award has recognized composers Reinaldo Moya, Jessica Meyer, and Kenneth Fuchs, and brought to life three new works. The third, by Fuchs, is set to premiere with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on March 12, 2023. In addition to the $25,000 commission, the awardee is hosted in Maine for a community residency prior to the premiere.
The application is now open, with a deadline for submission of September 30, 2022. Details and a link to submit can be found at ellis-beauregardfoundation.org. There is no application fee.
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About the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation
The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation provides resources for artists, engages with community and promotes the legacy of its founding artists, Joan Beauregard and John David Ellis. The vision of the Foundation is to encourage, expand and sustain the courageous and imaginative dialogue that is fundamental to the arts. The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation celebrates the value of art to transcend cultures and engage with diverse communities. Through its programs, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation supports the exploration of the common ground that art occupies, the way it engages people, and its ability to reveal our shared human experience.
About the Bangor Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1896, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra provides powerful, enriching and diverse musical experiences through live concert performances and education programs of the highest quality. The BSO enters its 127th season led by Grammy Award-winning Music Director and Conductor Lucas Richman with a focus on serving the community in unique and exciting ways. In addition to its mainstage concerts, signature BSO programs include the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestras, the Bangor Arts Exchange, and a Music and Wellness Program.. A full season schedule can be found at bangorsymphony.org and recent digital offerings can be viewed at watch.bangorsymphony.org.
About the Jury
John Harbison, Composer
One of the leading compositional voices of his generation, John Harbison’s concert music catalog of almost 300 works is anchored by three operas, six symphonies, twelve concerti, an organ symphony, and a ballet, six string quartets, numerous song cycles and chamber works, and a large body of sacred music that includes cantatas, motets, and the orchestral-choral works Four Psalms, Requiem, and Abraham. He also has a substantial body of jazz compositions and arrangements. Harbison has received commissions from most of America’s premiere musical institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As one of America’s most distinguished artistic figures, he is recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships, a Kennedy Center Friedheim First Prize, the Heinz Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Harvard Arts Medal.
André Raphel, Conductor
Acclaimed for his creative programming and versatility, conductor André Raphel is renowned for his compelling musical performances. A dynamic podium presence, he has also developed a reputation as a skilled communicator. Raphel has led critically acclaimed festivals, world premieres and commissioned works by Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, Kenneth Fuchs, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Uri Caine and Hannibal Lokumbe.
Conductor Laureate of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, André Raphel led the orchestra as Music Director for 15 years. Other key positions have included Assistant Conductor to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic for two years. He was Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra for six years. Raphel served for three years as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony.
Chen Yi, Composer
Born in Guangzhou, China, Dr. CHEN YI* transcends musical and cultural boundaries in her blending of Chinese and Western traditions. She holds a BA and an MA in Composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a DMA from Columbia University, and has studied composition with Wu Zuqiang, Chou Wen-chung and Mario Davidovsky. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. She has taught at the Peabody Conservatory and currently holds a professorship at the University of Missouri Kansas City, where she has been on faculty since 1998.
Dr. Chen’s music has been performed and commissioned by the world’s leading musicians and ensembles, including Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Evelyn Glennie, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC and Singapore Symphony Orchestras, the Seattle, Pacific, and Kansas City Symphonies, the Brooklyn, NY, and LA Philharmonics, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her music has also been recorded on many labels based in the US, Europe, and Asia, including Naxos, Albany, Teldec, and the China Record Company, among others.
* Chen is family name, Yi is personal name. Chen Yi can be referred to as Dr. Chen, Prof. Chen, Ms. Chen, or Chen Yi, but not Dr. Yi, Prof. Yi, or Ms. Yi.