17 US composers receive $205,000 awards

17 US composers receive $205,000 awards

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norman lebrecht

March 10, 2016

The American Academy of Arts and Letters has announced this year’s awards in music.

All-male judging panel. Five women out of 17 winners.

No minorities.

hannah lash

pictured: Hannah Lash

Comments

  • anon says:

    Hate to break it to you, Norman, but American does not have a majority of Asians.

  • Janice says:

    No minorities? How is that relevant as a composer? Let’s start giving random prizes to people of all races and nationalities so we can fill diversity quotas instead of rewarding actual talent, right?

  • Graeme Hall says:

    Presumably either the 5 women or the 12 men (I don’t know the US gender demographic) were from a minority?

  • boringfileclerk says:

    Half of the winners studied with members of the committee. This is a scam. And we thought that piano and violin competitions are rigged!

  • John Borstlap says:

    Composers are already a minority as such. And good composers are a diverse minority within the minorities.

  • Bruce says:

    “17 US composers receive $205,000 awards” makes it sound like each one of them received $205,000. Maybe adding the words “in” or “worth of” would help?

    (From the actual website it’s clear that the awards total $205K)

  • Michael B. says:

    In addition to the two composers of Asian origin, there is also Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, who was born in Mexico. This rigmarole of characterizing composers by their apparent or purported ethnic origins is becoming stale and diminishes the work that these composers actually do. (How, for example, would you characterize the American composer Gabriela Lena Frank, whose father is a Russian Jew and whose mother is half Peruvian Inca Native American and half Chinese?)

    • John Borstlap says:

      Cultural traditions from various places can be chosen, so ethnic background of composers is entirely irrelevant.

  • Nicola Lefanu says:

    Well, at least the whole stash didn’t go to Esa Pekka Salonen.

  • Steve Pruitt says:

    Liberal pc crap reporting. Guess this is the last time I’ll waste any effort on this site. Hope you enjoy the Trump conversion heading your way, commie.

  • Peter K. Breit says:

    Who were the recipients?

  • Hilary says:

    I’d hazard a guess that atleast one is gay so there’s another minority thrown in. Personally, I think it should be on merit alone. I adjudicated a composition competition once. 1st prize went to a composer who happened to be female.

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