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The Boston Choral Ensemble Commission Competition
1st Annual :: 2008 Commission Competition
Eric Banks, Honorable Mention, 2008 Born and raised in New York State, Eric Banks received his BA in Composition in 1990 from Yale University. He studied orchestral conducting with Alasdair Neale, choral conducting with Marguerite Brooks, and composition with Fenno Heath. Banks then moved to Seattle to study at the University of Washington’s School of Music. Eric's musical interests have always been international in scope, with a particular fascination for new and undiscovered choral compositions. In Choral Studies, Eric’s MM thesis (1992) was a performance edition of Dixit Dominus by the Italian Baroque composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani; his DMA dissertation (1995) surveyed the a cappella choral works of the Mexican composer and Aztec ethnomusicologist Carlos Chávez. Eric’s MA thesis in Music Theory (1995) was a post-modern analysis of Arvo Pärt’s symphonic Credo; his PhD dissertation research on the 'Swedish Choral Wonder' took him to Stockholm for the 1997-1998 academic year on a Fulbright Fellowship and Lois Roth Scholar. During his year in Sweden, Eric worked with several conductors, including Eric Ericson, Gustaf Sjökvist, Anders Eby, and Stefan Parkman. Since his return to Seattle, Eric has turned to composing many new works for The Esoterics — including several arrangements of a cappella folksongs and jazz tunes, Celestial Wystan (setting a triptych of poems by W. H. Auden), Onomata planêtôn (intoning the moons in the solar system), Tabula siderum zodiaco (mapping the stars of the zodiac), Jâvdâni (setting quatrains on the afterlife by the poet Rûmî), Twelve Qur’anic visions (a dreamscape of sacred verses in Arabic), and Sonetti d’amore (setting seven Italian love sonnets by Michelangelo). Eric has recently joined the music faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, and is the director Ædonis, Seattle Men’s Chorus’ newest small ensemble. Recently Eric has been appointed to the review board for the International Federation of Choral Music’s annual choral score compendium, Cantemus. More information A.J. McCaffrey, Honorable Mention, 2008 Composer and songwriter A.J. McCaffrey has been collaborating with directors, artists, choreographers, filmmakers and instrumental groups for over ten years, including Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA and the documentary film group Northern Light Productions. His music has covered a broad range of styles, but always captures the mood through dramatic, emotional directness and vivid orchestral and electronic colors. As a composer for the concert stage, A.J.’s music is inspired by the work of American and European minimalists like Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti, Kevin Volans and Witold Lutoslawski, composers whose sunny, rhythmic energy and drive contrast with subtle, affecting and darker textures and harmonies. Bands and artists like Radiohead, Sparklehorse, Jeff Buckley, Sufjan Stevens and Bjork have also been influences; as a bassist, guitarist, singer and lyricist, A.J. has written, performed and recorded songs that explore similar themes of lightness and darkness going hand in hand. Like his concert and film music, it is always dramatic, melodic, and expertly colored with both traditional and unexpected sounds. More information Justin Merritt, Honorable Mention, 2008 In 2000 composer Justin Merritt (b. 1975) was the youngest-ever winner of the ASCAP Foundation/Rudolph Nissim Award for Janus Mask for Orchestra. He is also the winner of many other awards including the 2006 Polyphonos Prize, the 2000 Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Competition Award for The Day Florestan Murdered Magister Raro and the 2001 Kuttner String Quartet Competition for Ravening. Other works include music for orchestra, ballet, and opera. He has also worked as composer and musical director in dozens of theater productions, ranging from Shakespeare to DaDa. Justin is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition & Theory at St. Olaf College. He received his Bachelors in Music from Trinity University and a Masters and Doctorate in Music from Indiana University. He studied composition with Samuel Adler, Sven-David Sandström, Claude Baker, Timothy Kramer, Don Freund, and electronic and computer music with Jeffrey Hass. More information Zachary Wadsworth, Winner, 2008 The music of Zachary Wadsworth, praised for its "evocative mixture of old and new," spans the entire spectrum of concert music, from music for solo instruments to choral works, art songs, chamber music, orchestra pieces, and an opera. He is also an active pianist and singer, performing regularly in chamber music, solo vocal, and choral settings. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Zachary has received composition commissions from numerous individuals and organizations, including The Commission Project, the Hanson Institute for American Music, the Eastman School of Music, Smith College, St. Anne Church, Rochester, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Rochester, and Christ Church, Rochester. His pieces have been performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, Long Leaf Opera, by ensembles at Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, Westminster Choir College, Smith College, Nazareth College, and by choirs and soloists throughout the world. He has received several composition awards, including first prize in the 2007 ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition, first place in the first Long Leaf Opera One Act Opera Competition, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two Morton Gould Young Composers Awards from ASCAP, the Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize and the Simon Rose Memorial Scholarship from the Eastman School of Music, and the Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Memorial Prize from the Yale School of Music. A recording of his choral work, "O Saving Victim" is now available on the Gothic record label. Zachary has studied at the Eastman School of Music (BM, 2005) and Yale University (MM, 2007), and he is currently pursuing a DMA in music composition at Cornell University. His composition teachers have included Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Ingram Marshall, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Robert Morris, David Liptak, James Willey, and Syd Hodkinson. He also studied at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Aspen Music Festival and School. More information
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