Sackler Prize in Composition
The 2008 Prize
Nathan Currier
2008 Prize Winner
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Neal Larrabee, piano soloist
Finalists
Ian Munro - Sydney, Australia
David Liptak - Rochester, New York
Semi-Fianlists
Peter Child, Roshanne Etezady, Frank Ferko,
Stephen Gryc, Kristin Kuster, James Syler
Nathan Currier has frequently been recognized for his many compositions. In 1999 he received the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for lifetime achievement in composition. The award's citation mentioned the honesty and clarity of his music, as well as the direct impact, immediate appeal and 'breathtaking virtuosity' of his compositions.
He has also been honored by prizes such as the prestigious Rome Prize for composition, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a grant from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship at Tanglewood, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, two ASCAP Awards to young composers, as well as many other prizes, such as the International Barlow Competition, the Juilliard Orchestral Composition Competition, and the Silver Medal - as a pianist - in the International Piano Recording Competition for a performance of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Funding for his works has come from such sources as the Copland Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Chamber Music America, the New York State Council for the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Meet the Composer, the Barlow Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, the Ditson Fund at Columbia University, Michigan State University, the Fromm Foundation, and the American Music Center. His compositions have been highly acclaimed critically, and have been performed throughout the United States, as well as in France, Germany, England, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Russia, Denmark, Greece, Israel, India and Canada.
His music has been heard on National Public Radio with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has composed works for groups such as a new quintet from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, The New York Festival of Song, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Chelsea Ensemble, the Shanghai Quartet, the Verdehr Trio, the Juilliard Pre-College Chorus and Orchestra, and for distinguished soloists such as pianist Leon Fleisher, tenor Paul Sperry and harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet. Other soloists who have recently performed his music include flutists Ransom Wilson and Emmanuel Pahud, violist Paul Neubauer, and harpist Nancy Allen.
Currier has also been a frequent recipient of residency fellowships such as at the MacDowell Colony, the Yaddo Colony, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy and the Camargo Foundation in France.
Neal Larrabee, pianist, has concertised extensively in the United States and Europe. He has performed in major music centers including New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow. His appearances as recitalist and as soloist with orchestras have won critical acclaim. Nominated by the United States Information Service for performing under the auspices of the American embassies, Larrabee has toured Germany, Russia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. In Poland, Larrabee has become a well-known favorite of the concert-going public. There, his highly regarded interpretations of Chopin have led to recordings, national broadcasts on television and radio, and engagements in virtually every major concert hall. Invited for return engagements in Moscow, he performed at the Moscow Conservatory's Rachmaninoff Hall, the Moscow State University, and for the concert series presented at the U.S. Ambassador's Spaso House. Awarded a Fulbright grant for study at the Moscow Conservatory under Stanislav Neuhaus, Larrabee became the first American pianist to study in the former Soviet Union under official government sponsorship. He also studied with Eugene List at the Eastman School of Music and with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Josef Lhevinne Scholarship. He earned his doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook under Martin Canin. Larrabee has won honors in the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Ninth International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was the first pianist to have been awarded the Artur Rubenstein Medal as winner of the Young Musician's Foundation Competition in Los Angeles.
