Endowed by Suzanne Ettelson in memory of Lee Ettelson, the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer's Awards for New Chamber Works by American Composers is nationally recognized as a major opportunity for composers. Its purpose is to honor the best in current American music and to provide composers with a prominent forum for their work.
Previous winners of the Suzanne & Lee Ettelson Award include composers who have gone on to have distiguished careers in American music composition.
Two awards of $1,000 each will be given for new chamber works. Winning works will be performed during Composers, Inc.'s 2011-12 concert season in San Francisco. Award winners are expected to attend performances. Composers, Inc. will provide lodging. Works not awarded prizes will also be considered for programming.
All composers who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States are eligible to enter. Previous winners of this award are ineligible. Musical works requiring one to five performers are eligible, as are works employing electronic media (including tape alone). Composers may submit more than one work.
Anonymous submission: Remove or mask all indications of the composer's name on scores and recordings. Scores and recordings must be marked with a pseudonym and accompanied by the following, which will not be seen by the judges: a 3x5 card for each work, showing composer's name, pseudonym used, address, telephone, and email address if available. Send one score per work, accompanied by a cassette or CD recording, if available. MIDI realizations are also acceptable. Scores must be bound or stapled. Do not send parts. If you want your materials returned, enclose a self-addressed envelope bearing the proper postage. Composers, Inc. is not liable for accidental loss or damage to materials. A non-refundable entry fee of $25US for one work or $20US per work for two or more works is due on submission. Please enclose a check payable to Composers, Inc.
Anonymity of the entrants is observed throughout the judging process. The judges are the artistic directors of Composers, Inc.: Robert Greenberg, Frank La Rocca, Jeffrey Miller, Martin Rokeach, and Allen Shearer.
Entries must be postmarked by November 1, 2011. Do not send by registered mail or other service that requires the addressee's signature. Winners will be announced in March, 2012. You may reach us by e-mail at:mail@composersinc.org if you have any questions.
Send entries to:
Composers, Inc. Lee Ettelson Composer's Award
PO Box 194552
San Francisco, CA 94119
Beginning in 2011 Composers, Inc. reserves the right to use the concert recordings of Award recipients for promotional use.
José Miguel Bevia composes in both classical and jazz idioms and is also an accomplished pianist. A graduate of Valencia Conservatory, he earned a doctorate at Florida State University. He has studied composition with Ladislav Kubik and Mark Wingate and jazz piano with Marcus Roberts and Bill Peterson, and has worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Zwilich and jazz composer Bill Holman. His music has been performed by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra, the Millennium Jazz Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Count Basie Orchestra, and commissioned by the Commission Project, the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize, harpist Arielle, and the Ferdiko Piano Duo. Residencies include the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Visby International Center for Composers in Sweden, and the American Academy in Rome.
Winner of the 2010 International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition in Neapolis, Greece and the 2007 BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize in New York, he has also been honored at competitions and conferences in Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Korea. The University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press publishes his music, and his CD featuring the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra is available on the MSR label. José Bevia is a member of the faculty at County College of Morris in New Jersey.
Hear José Bevia's Ettelson Award winning work, Three Enigmas on the I 
Oakland concert, Tuesday, February 26, 2012 @ 8pm, Piedmont Piano Company, Piedmont Piano Co., 1728 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612
Composer Sam Nichols lives and works in Northern California. He has twice been commissioned by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as by Earplay and the Composers Conference at Wellesley College. His music has been performed across the United States and Europe by musicians such as soprano Haleh Abghari, cellist David Russell, and pianists Amy Briggs, Shuann Chai, Sabrina De Carlo, Christopher Wendell Jones, Karolina Rojahn, and Karen Rosenak. He has received awards and fellowships from the University of Illinois (3rd prize, 2010 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Prize), the International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University, the Third Millennium Ensemble, the Composers Conference, and Montalvo Center for the Arts. Active in electronic music, he has produced several multi-media installations in collaboration with sculptor Robin Hill, and has performed with percussionist Chris Froh. Upcoming projects include an orchestra piece employing two conductors and a chamber opera on Kafka's The Metamorphosis.
Born in Maine, he attended Vassar College (B.A., 1994) and Brandeis University (M.A. 1999, Ph.D 2006). He is a Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of California at Davis and teaches in collaboration with the Technocultural Studies Program. In the spring of 2011 he received the U.C. Davis Academic Federation Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Hear Sam Nichol's Ettelson Award winning work, Refuge on the Riffs & Refuge concert, Tuesday, April 24, 2012 @ 8pm, Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
Composers, Inc. is supported in part by Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, the BMI Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation and through the generosity of individuals who give selflessly for the cause of new American music.
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