Winners:

Fabio Massimo Capogrosso - 4 miniature per 4 strumenti a fiato for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn
Joseph Gregorio - Rondo (from Music for Springtime) for Woodwind Quintet
Robert McClure - Desert Miniatures: Insects for Three Bassoons
Wong Chun-Wai - A Breath of Life for Oboe, Bassoon, Violin, Viola and Double Bass

Honorable Mention:

Nikolai Brücher - Myths for Bassoon, Vibraphone, and Piano

Jabez Co - Instilling Hope for Woodwind Quintet

Premiere:

Britton Recital Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 26th, 2016, 5:30 p.m.

Program of the event is HERE.

Performers:

Albie Micklich, bassoon- Arizona State University

Eric Van der Veer Varner, bassoon- Lynn University/TrevCo-Varner Music

Eric Rutherford, bassoon- Heidelberg University

Susan Nelson, bassoon- Bowling Green State University

Jeff Lyman, bassoon- University of Michigan

Nancy Ambrose King, oboe- University of Michigan

Conor Nelson, flute- Bowling Green State University

Kevin Schempf, clarinet- Bowling Green State University

Emily Dietz, horn- Toledo Symphony

Christina Adams, violin- University of Michigan DMA

Kathryn Votapek, viola- University of Michigan

Scott Pingel, bass- University of Michigan 

Merryl Monard, flute- University of Michigan DMA

Caroline Steiger, horn

Melissa Bosma, oboe- Michigan Philharmonic, Heidelberg University

about the Composers:

Fabio Massimo Capogrosso began studying the piano at an early age and immediately he prevaled in several national and international competitions. He won the First Prize at the "International Competition for young performers" of Cassino and the First Prize at the "National Competition city of Vasto."

The combination of a certain musical and cultural vibrancy combined with a growing spirit of experimentation led him to study composition. In 2008 under the guidance of Maestro Sergio Prodigo, he obtained the first academic degree cum laude; meanwhile, he was also interested in other musical languages and studied "music applied to images," during "Copia l’autore" held by the famous Maestro Carlo Crivelli (winner at Cannes for best soundtrack with Marco Bellocchio's Vincere). He worked on a series of scores for documentaries. In 2009, he excelled in the category of composers at the Ibla Grand Prize Competition. In October 2011, he obtained a second graduated degree in composition cum laude after the performance of the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese Symphonic Poem "For perpetuam rei memoriam."

Many of his works have been performed by accomplished artists such as Marlène Prodigo, Lavinia Morelli, Sara Gentile, Anita Mazzantini, Alessandro Soccorsi, Mara Oosterbaan, Anastasia Feruleva, Sesto Quatrini, Dario Flammini, Massimiliano Pitocco, Quartet Falstaff, Nuova Synapsis Ensemble, Red4Quartet, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese; and in important festivals like "Sounds of the Dolomites", UrtiCanti contemporary music festival, the International Festival di Mezza Estate, and Caffeina Cultura 2013; among these, particularly appreciated by audiences and critics, we can mention the “Fiaba Abruzzese”, the concert for two bayan and orchestra, the symphonic poem "ad parpetuam rei memoriam", the sparkling Suite for wind orchestra, the chamber works as a Quartetto su di un tema ossessivo, Un breve racconto notturno, The Legend of Mastrofuoco ("Teatro Cilea" of Reggio Calabria, "Guarasci Auditorium" of Cosenza, "Sala Martucci" of Naples and "Teatro Comunale" of the Eagle) and Rêve.

For more information, go to www.fabiomassimocapogrosso.it

A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Joseph Gregorio is equally at home composing and conducting.  Gregorio’s compositions have been broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today and WQXR’s Choral Mix, have garnered prizes in several competitions, and have been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous and renowned soloists and ensembles at such venues as the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, and the Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Gregorio was  selected as a 2015 grantee by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music; he was also named the 2011-2012 composer-in-residence of New York City ensemble Choral Chameleon.  His music is published by Areté Music Imprints, E. C. Schirmer Music Company, and the National Collegiate Choral Organization, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Concerto Della Donna, the Washington Men’s Camerata, the John Alexander Singers, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, the Rutgers University Glee Club, the Cornell University Glee Club, and The Capital Hearings.

Also active as a conductor, Gregorio is director of choirs at Swarthmore College.  He is director of chamber choir Ensemble Companio, which he founded in 2011 and which won the 2012 American Prize in choral performance.  Gregorio has co-conducted the Yale Recital Chorus and the Yale Repertory Chorus, and has guest-conducted the Swarthmore College Orchestra, the Cornell University Glee Club, and the Mansfield University Concert Choir. He served from 2004-2006 as the assistant conductor of the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus, and was assistant conductor of the San Francisco Bach Choir from 2005-2007.

Gregorio has studied composition with Steven Stucky, David Conte, Richard Brodhead, Alice Parker, and Matthew Greenbaum.  He holds a M.M. in composition with departmental honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University.  While at Yale, he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Simon Carrington, and received the Edward Stanley Seder, Richard French, and Hugh Giles prizes in choral conducting; while at Cornell, he was the recipient of the Ellen Gussman Adelson scholarship in music.  Gregorio has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composers’ Symposium and the summer program of the European American Musical Alliance.  He was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009.  He also taught music theory at Temple University from 2011-2012, where he is presently a candidate for the D.M.A. in composition and was the recipient of a Presidential Fellowship. For more, visit www.josephgregoriomusic.com

 Robert McClure’s music attempts to discover beauty in unconventional places using non-traditional means.  Visual art, poetry, the natural world, neurological, and mathematical concepts are all elements that influence McClure’s works. His work has been featured at festivals and conferences including the New York City Electronic Music Festival, the Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music (MACCM) New Music Festival, the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). 

McClure’s music has been commissioned by individuals, ensembles, and organizations including MACCM, IronWorks Percussion Duo, Trio Sonora, Liminal Space Contemporary Music Ensemble, the BGSU Student Percussion Association, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.  His piece Integrated Elements No. 3 “Divide by Five” for African xylophone and fixed media was named the Winner of the 2013 Frame Dance Composition Competition.  His audio/visual installation …the paint while it’s dripping received the prize of Best Digital Art at the celebrateArt 2012 Festival in Houston, TX. His dissertation work for large orchestra titled, Warning Colors, received the Paul and Christiane Cooper Prize in Composition (2014) from Rice University.

McClure’s music is published by Bachovich Music Publications, Innovative Percussion, Media Press, Inc., Resolute Music Publications, and Tapspace Publications.  He has earned degrees from Bowling Green State University (B.M.), The University of Arizona (M.M.), and Rice University (D.M.A.) during which his primary mentors have been Daniel Asia, Shih-Hui Chen, Arthur Gottschalk, Richard Lavenda, and Kurt Stallmann.  He holds the position of Assistant Professor of Composition at the School of Music at Soochow University in Suzhou, China. 

For more information, visit www.robertwmcclure.com

Chun Wai Wong is currently a doctoral candidate (D.Mus) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Wong has a versatile composition profile that spans from chamber and orchestral music to musicals and film scores.

He won the First Prize and Audience Prize in the Coups de Vents 5th International Composition Competition for Wind Orchestra (2015, France), the David Gwilt Composition Prize and Audience Prize (2015, Hong Kong), the Veridian Symphony Orchestra Second Annual Call for Scores Competition (2014, United States), another David Gwilt Composition Prize (2014, Hong Kong) among others. His music has also been featured in the Inter-Tertiary Young Composers Platform concert (Hong Kong, Germany), the 59th International Rostrum of Composers (Sweden), ISCM World Music Days 2012 (Belgium) and the XXXVI International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez” (Mexico).

Wong was granted numerous scholarships including The Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong Scholarship (2010, 2013, 2014). His works has been performed or recorded by professionals including the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (Hong Kong), Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie (IEMA) (Germany) and the Boston New Music Initiative (United States). His works have been recorded and published by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild.

For more please visit www.wongchunwaimusic.com

 Honorable Mention:

Nikolai Brücher was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 13th, 1979, in a German-Brazilian family. He graduated in composition at the State University of his hometown in 2007 with a final master thesis on the trends of contemporary symphonic music in Brazil.

Since October 2008, he has been living in Germany, where he started pursuing further studies in composition at the University of Arts in Munich, in the class of Prof. Jan Müller-Wieland. After two years working and living in Berlin, he moved to Hamburg, where he currently resides, in 2012. As a composer, Nikolai Brücher has written chamber and vocal music as well as orchestral works which have been performed in Europe, South America and Asia. His orchestral works ‘ Tri Kartina’ and ‘ Mocágua’ have been awarded the 1.Prize at the ‘ Cláudio Santoro Composition Contest 2005 ’ in Rio de Janeiro and the 2.Prize at the ‘ Camargo Guarnieri Composition Contest 2007 ’ in São Paulo, respectively. His Saxophone Concerto ‘ Mistral’ was awarded the 1.Prize in the chamber orchestra category at the XIX Biennial Festival for contemporary Brazilian Music in 2011. His new work ‘ Who can turn skies back? ’, for chamber orchestra, will be premiered during the XXI edition of this festival in October 2015, in Rio de Janeiro He has received commissions from the Rio International Cello Encounter, the Siemens Foundation (Munich) and the Villa-Lobos Festival in Rio de Janeiro. In autumn 2013, his orchestral work  Mocágua was performed several times by the Barra Mansa Symphony Orchestra on a national concert tour in Brazil. His latest orchestral work  Imaginando Ouro sobre Azul was premiered in November 2013 at the opening concert of the 51st Villa-Lobos Festival in Rio de Janeiro. Similarly to his own bicultural background, Nikolai Brucher’s music frequently reveals a successful combination of elements of the European music tradition and of contemporary music with aspects of the musical traditions from his home country. His artistic ideals and the compositional-technical perfection are just as important to him as establishing a connection to the performing musicians and the audience.

Besides his artistic career, Nikolai Brucher is also active in classical music management. He has occupied the positions of assistant artistic producer at the  Rio International Cello Encounter in 2007-08, of assistant musical producer at the  Berlin Festival (Berliner Festspiele) in 2010-11 and of project manager at the Philharmonia of Nations (Philharmonie der Nationen) in Hamburg in 2011-13. He currently works with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (Hamburger Symphoniker).

For further information, please visit www.nikolaibrucher.com

Jabez Co (b. 1989; Manila, Philippines) composes vivid music that speaks to a wide range of audiences. His works are significantly influenced by his experience as an avid performer of standard concert repertoire, new compositions, and stage music. Jabez writes concert and dramatic works, creating a fusion of classical and Broadway idioms in both genres.

He has recently been a winner of Mu Phi Epsilon’s International Sterling Achievement Award, as well as a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Jabez was a participant and intern of the Charlotte New Music Festival and has attended Fresh Inc. Festival and Accent Music Festival.

Jabez received his M.M. in Composition at the University of Louisville, where he studied composition with Steve Rouse. He received a B.M. in Music Education from Ohio Wesleyan University and studied composition with Clint Needham, Jennifer Jolley, and Jason Bahr. He has also taken lessons with distinguished composers, including Dan Visconti, Stacy Garrop, Joel Hoffman, Christopher Theofanidis, and Joseph Schwantner. Jabez is currently pursuing a D.M. in Composition at Florida State University, where he serves as a Teaching Assistant in music theory and composition.

For more information, please check out his website at JabezSamuelCo.com

2015 Judges:

Jenni Brandon, composer

Bill Jobert, Wright State University bassoon professor

Nathan Koch, Sam Houston State University bassoon professor

Damian Montano, bassoonist, composer

Carl Rath, Lawrence University bassoon professor

Eric Rutherford, Heidelberg University bassoon professor

Jamie Sampson, ADJ-ective New Music, composer, bassoonist, author

Christin Schillinger, Miami University bassoon professor

Chris Weait, bassoonist, composer

Christin Webb, Ceora Winds, bassoonist

Dan Welcher, composer, conductor, bassoonist

David Wells, California State/Sacramento State University bassoon professor