Martin Kennedy is the recipient of this year’s ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize, given to the composer of a conducted work that has not yet been performed professionally. Kennedy won the award, which comes with a $5,000 cash prize, for his eight-minute work Trivial Pursuits for violin and orchestra. Kennedy, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University and a doctorate in composition from The Juilliard School, is an assistant professor of composition and theory at Washington University in St. Louis. Judges for this year’s prize were Delta David Gier, music director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra; Ryan McAdams, music director of the New York Youth Symphony; and Diane Wittry, music director of the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Symphony Orchestra and the Norwalk (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra. The Nissim jury also gave special distinction to Clint Needham for his nine-minute-long orchestral work Body Electric and Matthew Peterson for his fifteen-minute-long Reflections on the Death of the Beloved for symphonic band.
Posted January 26, 2010
