American Academy of Arts and Letters honors Baltimore composer James Lee III
His music, with its distinctive style and intriguing allusions (especially to scriptural references), has been attracting more and more attention lately. Locally, Leonard Slatkin conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of "Beyond Rivers of Vision" a few years ago at the Kennedy Center; just last weekend, members of Monument Piano Trio and the ANALOG ensemble premiered "Scenes from Eternity's Edge" for flute and piano trio at An die Musik.
Lee received the $10,000 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond award, given to "a promising mid-career composer."
The awards jury -- Robert Beaser, Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, Steven Stucky, Yehudi Wyner -- distributed $170,000 in awards; the presentation will be in May. Among the honorees:
Academy Awards in Music ($7,500 and additional $7,500 toward a recording) for "outstanding artistic achievement" by a "composer who has arrived at his or her own voice": Daniel Asia, David Felder, Pierre Jalbert, and James Primosch.
Goddard Lieberson fellowships ($15,000) "to mid-career composers of exceptional gifts": Philippe Bodin, Aaron J. Travers.
Charles Ives Fellowships ($15,000): Anna Clyne, Michael Djupstrom.
Six Charles Ives Scholarships ($7,500) for "composition students of great promise" were awarded; one of the recipients is Roger Zare, who got his master's degree at Peabody Conservatory grad).
