The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Music Composition

2008 Prize Winner: Nathan Currier — Greenwood, Virginia

Nathan Currier frequently has 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 also has been honored with such prizes 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 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.

Currier's 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 such groups 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 such distinguished soloists 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 also has 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.

Finalists

• David Liptak — Rochester, New York
• Ian Munro — Sydney, Australia

Semi-finalists

• Peter Child
• Roshanne Etezady
• Frank Ferko
• Stephen Gryc
• Kristin Kuster
• James Syler

The 2008 prize is for a composition of 15 to 25 minutes in length for a concerto for piano and wind instruments, with the same instrumentation as the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments by Igor Stravinsky. For further information about the competition, which awards the winner $20,000, please see the Sackler Prize website.