George Tsontakis Wins 2005 Grawemeyer Award for His
Violin Concerto No. 2
PR Newswire - 29 November 2004
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, November 28, 2004 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/
- American composer George Tsontakis has been selected to
receive the prestigious 2005 University of Louisville Grawemeyer
Award for Music Composition for his Violin Concerto No. 2.
Described by one music critic as "a work of gentle beauty and
intriguing orchestral sounds," Tsontakis's 20-minute concerto
received its world premiere on April 19, 2003, by Steven
Copes, violin, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under the
baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya. The concerto was recorded in
September as part of a KOCH disc of the composer's works.
In this somewhat atypical concerto, the violin soloist acts
as a sort of first among equals, rather than always as the
star, with the accompanying chamber orchestra functioning in
many places as a group of soloists itself. The composer
states that "the concept of 'orchestral' is diminished in
deference to the concept of 'chamber.' "
Violin Concerto No. 2 was one of more than 160 entries
from around the world. Tsontakis is the 19th winner of the
Grawemeyer music prize. Previous winners include Gyorgy
Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Thomas Ades, Tan Dun, John
Corigliano, Kaija Saariaho and, in 2004, Unsuk Chin.
A faculty member of the Aspen Music School in Aspen, Colorado,
since 1976, Tsontakis was the founding director of the Aspen
Contemporary Ensemble from 1991 until 1998. He studied
composition with Roger Sessions at The Juilliard School, and
he has directed the Riverside Orchestra and the Metropolitan
Greek Chorale in New York.
Violin Concerto No. 2 joins a long list of award-winning
works by Tsontakis. He twice has received Kennedy Center
Friedheim Awards, in 1989 for String Quartet No. 4 and in
1992 of his orchestral work Perpetual Angelus. Pianist Stephen
Hough's recording of Ghost Variations was nominated for a
Grammy Award for best contemporary classical composition and
was cited by Time magazine as the only classical recording
among its 1998 Top Ten Recordings. He is currently composing
a piano concerto for Hough to be premiered with the Dallas
Symphony in September 2005, when it will be recorded for
Hyperion Records.
Tsontakis received the prestigious award for lifetime achievement
from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995 and was
the Vilar Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 2002.
Charles Grawemeyer was an industrialist, entrepreneur and
University of Louisville graduate who had a lifelong passion
for music, education and religious studies. Rather than
rewarding personal achievements, he chose to recognize powerful
ideas or creative works in the sciences, arts and humanities.
The Grawemeyer Foundation at the University of Louisville
annually awards $1 million - $200,000 each for works in music
composition, education, ideas improving world order, religion
and psychology. The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion
is given by the university and the Louisville Presbyterian
Theological Seminary. The other Grawemeyer winners will be
announced this week.
For more information, go to: http://www.grawemeyer.org/
Scott Morrison
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