Thursday, June 21, 2007

Composer Kevin Walczyk wins AMC grant

Today, the American Music Center gave Oregon composer Kevin Walczyk a monetary award to help him cover the performance costs of his recent piece Concerto Gaucho. The AMC awarded a total of $35,050 to 25 composers; so we're not talking about a big pile of money here. If the money was evenly split, then each composer received about $1,400. But hey, JS Bach received nada for his Brandenburg Concertos.

So congratulations to Dr. Walczyk, who teaches music at Western Oregon University. Walczyk's work has been performed by many orchestras and ensembles, including the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and the Third Angle New Music Ensemble. His Concerto Gaucho was premiered by the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra in May at the Kiev World Music Festival.

The AMC was founded in 1939 by Aaron Copeland and Howard Hanson and a number of other composers to help promote new music.

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