Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES SummER 2014 Sai-natiOnal.ORg 8 t he American Guild of Organists (AGO) honored two award- winning composers on June 24 during the AGO National Convention in Boston. AGO President Eileen Guenther, a Beta Beta initiate of SAI currently affiliated with the Washington DC Alumnae Chapter, presided over the award presentations to SAI Member Laureate Libby Larsen of Minneapolis and Ivan Božičević of Croatia. e 2014 Distinguished Composer Award was presented to Libby Larsen. e prestigious award, created in 1986, is presented biennially to recognize outstanding composers of organ and choral music in the United States. Previous award recipients include: SAI Honorary Member Alice Parker; SAI National Arts Associates Samuel Adler, Dominick Argento, Daniel Pinkham, and Ned Rorem; SAI Friend of the Arts Dan Locklair; and SAI Composers Bureau Members William Bolcom, Emma Lou Diemer, Stephen Paulus, and Margaret Sandresky. A 1970 Sigma Sigma initiate at the University of Minnesota, Larsen is one of America's most prolific and most performed living composers, and has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music, to massive orchestral works, and over twelve operas. Her music has been praised for its dynamic, deeply inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Constantly sought aer for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles and orchestras around the world, Libby Larsen has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory. Larsen has been hailed as "the only English- speaking composer since Benjamin Britten who matches great verse with fine music so intelligently and expressively" by USA TODAY, and e Wall Street Journal noted she "has come up with a way to make contemporary opera both musically current and accessible to the average audience." She premiered her "Pocket Sonata," an engaging piece for alto saxophone, cello, marimba/vibraphone, piano, and violin commissioned by SAI, at the SAI Centennial National Convention in 2003. She has received numerous other awards and accolades, including a 1994 Grammy as producer of the e Art of Arlene Augér, an acclaimed recording that features Larsen's Sonnets from the Portuguese. Her opera Frankenstein, e Modern Prometheus was selected as one of the eight best classical music events of 1990 by USA Today. e first woman to serve as a resident composer with a major orchestra, she has held residencies with the California Institute of the Arts, the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, the Philadelphia School of the Arts, the Cincinnati Conservatory, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. Larsen's many commissions and recordings are a testament to her fruitful collaborations with a long list of world-renowned artists, including e King's Singers, SAI Honorary Benita Valente, and Frederica von Stade, among others. Her works are widely recorded on such labels as Angel/EMI, Nonesuch, Decca, and Koch International. As a past holder of the 2003-2004 Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education at the Library of Congress and recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Libby Larsen is a vigorous, articulate champion of the music and musicians of our time. In 1973, she co-founded (with Stephen Paulus) the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum, which has been an invaluable advocate for composers in a difficult, transitional time for American arts. Consistently sought-aer as a leader in the generation of millennium thinkers, Libby Larsen's music and ideas have refreshed the concert music tradition and the composer's role in it. , Johns Hopkins University awarded Larsen the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America in May 2010. e 2014 AGO/ECS Publishing Award in Choral Composition was presented to Ivan Božičević (ivanbozicevic.com) for his winning composition, Kyrie eleison. e award included a cash prize of $2,000 and publication, both provided by the ECS Publishing Co., and a performance at the 2014 AGO National Convention in Boston. irty-five composers submitted pieces to the fourteenth biennial competition. e competition was judged by SAI Honorary Member Carol Barnett, David Carrier, and Steven Sametz. Mr. Božičević is the first Croatian citizen ever to receive the award. saI MeMbers In actIon Member Laureate Larsen Receives AGO Composer Award Ann Marsden SAI Member Laureate Libby Larsen For more information, visit libbylarsen.com clIcK For More

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