2019 Annual Report

Prize Winner

The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University proudly announces the 2019 Commission winners. After reviewing 276 submissions from 28 countries, the judging panel awarded Bekah Simms of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the 2019 Barlow Prize for $12,000 to compose a major new work for Pierrot Ensemble with percussion and electronics. Dr. Simms hails from St. John’s, Newfoundland but is currently Toronto-based. JUNO Award-nominated composer Bekah Simms’ varied output has been heralded as “nuanced and complex” (NOW Magazine) and “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music). Her music has been widely broadcast in Canada and the United States; performed across Canada, in over a dozen American states, Italy, Germany, Austria, Lithuania, and the UK and interpreted by a diverse range of top-tier performers including Esprit Orchestra, Continuum Contemporary Music, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Madawaska Quartet, Ensemble Paramirabo, TorQ Percussion Quartet, and Duo Concertante. Dr. Simms has been the recipient of over 25 awards and prizes, including the 2017 Toronto Emerging Composer Award and the 2018 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music. Her work “Granitic” was nominated for the 2019 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year.

For more information about Bekah Simms, Barlow Prize winner, consult her website.

2019 Report

The Barlow Education Grant supports students and faculty of the BYU School of Music in their education and their professional endeavors in music composition.

A large share of the Education Grant funds always goes towards direct student support, by way of scholarships, assistantships, internships, travel awards and fee support for festivals, performances, and guest composers that work directly with students.

Established in 2011, the Milton A. Barlow Scholarship and the Barlow Student Composition Award are ongoing scholarships/awards presented to the most outstanding composition student(s) in our program. The Milton A. Barlow Scholarship is a one-year, full tuition scholarship, and the Barlow Student Composition Award is a $750 cash award that carries with it a commission to write a new piece for one of BYU’s premiere large ensembles.

The recipient of the 2019 Milton A. Barlow Scholarship was continuing masters composition student Scott Nelson. Scott has been an impressive student who contributes to the composition area in a number of valuable ways. He is an ear training instructor and TA for the BYU Electronic Music Studio and has performed in and produced several engaging concerts during his time as a student. This scholarship is a huge support to him and his family.

Our 2019 Barlow Student Composition Award recipient was senior composition major Kalysha Chandler. She received a $750 cash prize and an opportunity to write a new work for the BYU Wind Symphony. This award has been a great way for us to connect our top composition students with the outstanding performers we have at BYU. It provides a unique and valuable opportunity for these young composers to see their work through to a polished performance by an experienced large ensemble.

Composition major Asher Bay was supported by additional Barlow funds in his participation in the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference (SEAMUS 2019) at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music in March 2019.
Asher’s composition, Old Math, was selected for presentation at the conference, a true honor for an undergraduate composer. Asher was able to meet leading composers in the electronic music field, hear a keynote address by electronic music pioneer and SEAMUS Award recipient Gordon Mumma, and experience inspiring and innovative music.

July 2019 marked the 14th year BYU student interns have assisted with the annual Barlow summit and Barlow Prize and Commissions judging. Four of our students—Scott Nelson, Thomas Fairholm, Kalysha Chandler, and Asher Bay—helped prepare for the annual summit by coordinating hundreds of scores, recordings, and other materials that would be used in the judging process. When attending the summit, students not only observed the the judging process first hand while assisting in the various judging rooms, but also had several opportunities during meals and breaks to interact directly with these professional composers and performers which included representatives of the Pierrot Ensemble + Percussion and Electronics consortium members. The Barlow internship has been a great boost to our program and we look forward to its continuation.

Barlow Education Grant funds continue to provide needed and valuable support for our composition courses, providing honoraria for student performers that workshop and perform pieces by developing student composers. The practical training our composition students receive from these performances is a key part of their success in our program and in their consistent acceptance into competitive graduate programs.

Barlow funds support Barlow Lectures and residencies by guest composers and performers each year that providing our students with exposure to the top professionals in the field of contemporary music. In addition to hearing these artists in a Barlow Lecture, students meet with these guests individually and in small groups for private composition lessons, shared meals, reading sessions with performers, and in other settings.

• Columbia University composer Brad Garton visited in January for a concert that included his performance/presentation of Garton’s interesting medibook apps including My Music Book, My Book of Dreams, and MemoryBook. He also met with several of our composition students in private lessons and presented a Barlow Lecture on his recent work creating interactive virtual reality (VR) environments.

• Faculty artists Jia Guoping and Dai Bo from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, completed a major residency in March. Jia and Dai presented a Barlow Lecture on their music and their music was also presented alongside works by BYU faculty composers at a BYU Chamber Orchestra concert featuring pipa virtuoso soloist, Lan Weiwei.

• In September, a BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications (CFAC) Laycock Grant, along with Barlow funds, supported a residency by guest composers/performers/improvisers Ron Coulter(percussion) and Vinny Golia (woodwinds). Vinny and Ron have both been to campus before and had unique things to offer as performers and lecturers. They were invited back to share a Barlow Lecture presentation and then record and perform with faculty improvisation duo Ricksplund (Steven Ricks and Christian Asplund). After the activities at BYU, Ricks and Asplund traveled to Casper, WY, to perform and lecture at Casper College where Ron Coulter
  teaches.

• A residency for New York-based chamber ensemble Occasional Noise Trio (trombone, piano, and percussion) and composer Christian Gentry, was supported by Barlow funds along with a BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications (CFAC) Laycock Grant. In early October, Gentry met with composition students privately, presented a Barlow Lecture on his music, and attended a reading session with the trio that featured them rehearsing and recording works our students wrote for their visit. Visits like this allow our students to gain valuable experience while working closely with professional performers. They are able to use the and composition prize applications.

• Professional composer, former Barlow Board of Advisors member and 2018 Barlow Prize winner Stacy Garrop, visited campus in October/November to present a Barlow Lecture, meet with students, and attend the World Premiere of her Barlow Prize piece
  for reed quintet, Rites of the Afterlife, performed by the BYU Faculty Reed quintet. Stacy’s visit was particularly instructive as she talked with students about her ongoing efforts to build and sustain a career as a freelance composer of art music.

Faculty

Worthy faculty projects and activities are supported by Barlow funds as a way of increasing the profile and reputation of our area and as a means to ensure our faculty are in the best position to instruct the students in current trends and practices.

Steven Ricks was provided with Barlow funds to support two primary projects. They helped cover recording costs for Ricks’ Latter-day Saints commission work Reconstructing the Lost Improvisations of Aldo Pilestri, by guitarist Daniel Lippel and chamber ensemble Counter
Induction in New York in May, following the work’s premiere in April. Funds also supported a presentation of his piece, After the Storm, for solo percussion and Kyma system at the 2019 Kyma International Sound Symposium in Busan, South Korea. In this case, funds were primarily used to support BYU composition alumnus Austin Lopez with travel and lodging so he could attend the symposium with Ricks to provide technical support on Ricks’ piece and to help further his skills with Kyma.

Neil Thornock’s recording project for his ambitious Planetarium cycle for organ and electronics was funded through the Barlow Education Grant.

Travel support was provided for Christian Asplund to attend and participate in the Center for Latter-day Saints Arts festival in New York City in June.

The Barlow Education Grant continues to support a variety of worthwhile and productive activities within the BYU School of Music composition area. We greatly appreciate these funds and will continue to use them in interesting and helpful ways.

As an intern with the Barlow Endowment, I really benefitted from the experiences and opportunities provided to me. It was greatly rewarding to be able to listen to the judges during the judging process and glean what kinds of things make up a good composition. Their depth of knowledge and their assessment of taste were astounding to observe. It was a privilege to listen to their remarks, internalize them, and apply them to my own music and compositional process.

Without any doubt, I am a better creator and musician than I was before this experience because of the expertise of the judges and their incredible willingness to reach out to us individually. Their desire to mentor, encourage, and connect with us was so kind and helped me think about all the paths I could take with my music. I was incredibly influenced by many remarks made about music and the purpose of music as a means to help people grow and create and to make people’s lives better. The insight offered by the judges helped me recognize the many different ways I could use music to positively affect those around me and how music could have real effects on people. Their comments changed the way I view music and inspired me to be more focused on how much more music and people can be connected.

I would like to thank the Barlow family for making this opportunity available to me and other college students. This was a tremendous opportunity to be a part of an organization that values and promotes music and I am thankful for the kindness and generosity shown towards me and everyone involved. I am very lucky to have been able to be a part of the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition competition.

My work as an intern with the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition has been transformative. The experience exposed me to a wide range of ideas being expressed by innovative composers. This kind of hands-on musical interaction is invaluable as I seek to form a vision of myself and my music.

It was especially interesting to observe the judging process. I found myself making lists of composers whose work I would like to examine in the future. I jotted down interesting musical approaches that I would like to try for my own work. In this sense, the internship has opened the door for deeper learning down the road.

In particular, I was struck with the Barlow Endowment’s support of the work of Latter-day Saint composers. I have subsequently pondered the ways that creative work and faith can reinforce one another. I feel empowered to pursue artistic excellence through the lens of religious devotion.

Most memorable, were the positive interactions shared with the judges who represent performers and composers in contemporary music. I was struck by their warmth, friendliness, and openness. The insights and perspectives they shared about music, community, and personal development will be valuable to me as I move forward with my artistic pursuits.

This experience is made possible by the support of the Barlow family and I would like to express my deepest gratitude for their generosity.

Interning with Barlow was a great experience. Hearing 150+ pieces by composers from all over the world gave me more context to see within my own music. Hearing trends and tropes pop up in piece after piece was eye opening. Since novelty is such an important creative ingredient of new music, an awareness of what other current composers are working on is valuable. I learned that boldness, although not a direct measure of artistic quality, is key for any aspiring composer to be noticed. This is especially important in a contest environment like the Barlow where each judge hears so many pieces.

The most educational part of my experience as an intern was listening to and speaking with the judges. Hearing their reactions and discussions of the submissions was very insightful. I feel like my aesthetic intuitions have been sharpened by observing each judge’s personality and taste. I was surprised how many opportunities there were to chat with them and how approachable they each were. I am a shy person by nature and was initially concerned that picking judges’ brains about different matters would be difficult, but I felt welcomed and at ease around them. They were always happy to answer questions and were even inquisitive about my own work.

I walked away from this internship with more confidence in myself as an artist and a more detailed perspective of the world of new music today. I would like to sincerely thank the Barlow family for facilitating these experiences and for promoting creativity and beauty in the world in general.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the Barlow Endowment’s internship program. Perhaps just as valuable as any of my schooling during the year, if not more valuable, the internship has given me real insight as to what a career can look like after a formal education in music composition is complete.

While processing applications for the Prize, General, and LDS commissions, I saw the breadth of types of people, jobs, and places that composition can take you, the types of music people are writing all over the world, and specifically the kinds of pieces of music that people are submitting as their strongest work for consideration to win a commission. When judging began, I learned the things the judges favored and critiqued as they reviewed every submission.

One judge pointed out to me that the music that rose to the top of the field in this competition should not be thought of as representative of the body of what would be considered today’s successful new music. Rather, that the competition circuit is just a portion of what the composition world looks like today and if a particular piece does not do well in these types of evaluations, it does not mean that the same piece would not be more successful when judged through lenses outside the competition circuit.

While I am grateful to have learned what makes a successful competition submission piece, I am perhaps more grateful for the chance I had to see the interactions between the guest judges, advisors and administrators. I saw what a supportive community the composition world is and that there are many different ways to participate in it.

Thanks to the Barlow family for this valuable experience.

During 2019, Dr. Chen Yi was inducted as a life member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. Other tributes include an Honoree with Life-time Achievement Award during the Chen Dance Center’s 40^th Anniversary in New York City and recipient of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Research/Creative Activity Award from the University of Missiouri-Kansas City Conservatory. She experienced three premieres of her works across the US and in Hong Kong. Introduction, Andante, and Allegro for orchestra was performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA on February 6, 2019. The Grossman Ensemble, the 13-member performing coalition is the most prominent element of University of Chicago’s newly launched Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC), premiered Fire on March 15^th. Most recently, Plum Blossom was premiered at the 5^th Hong Kong International Piano Competition in Hong Kong.
uring 2019, Dr. Chen Yi was inducted as a life member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. Other tributes include an Honoree with Life-time Achievement Award during the Chen Dance Center’s 40^th Anniversary in New York City and recipient of the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Research/Creative Activity Award from the University of Missiouri-Kansas City Conservatory. She experienced three premieres of her works across the US and in Hong Kong. Introduction, Andante, and Allegro for orchestra was performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA on February 6, 2019. The Grossman Ensemble, the 13-member performing coalition is the most prominent element of University of Chicago’s newly launched Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC), premiered Fire on March 15^th. Most recently, Plum Blossom was premiered at the 5^th Hong Kong International Piano Competition in Hong Kong.

* Chen is family name, Yi is personal name. Chen Yi can be referred to Dr. Chen, Prof. Chen, Ms. Chen, or Chen Yi, but not Dr. Yi, Prof. Yi, or Ms. Yi.

https://www.presser.com/chen-yi

Situated on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by one of the most international student bodies in the US, composer Daniel Bradshaw deals with a variety of influences, from classical traditions to rock idioms, to the timing of waves, to the rhythms of Polynesian drumming. Professional honors include awards from the American Music Center, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, and the American Composers Orchestra. His most recent work, On the Cooler (solo steel pan), was commissioned by Daniel Edwards and performed in Urbana-Champaign, IL. Other recent projects include Mimic Octopus, a collaborative composition with the fourth-grade students of Laie Elementary, and At Full Strength for orchestra, with planned performances at BYU (Provo, UT) and the Keneewaw Symphony Orchestra (Houghton, MI).

Dan received his doctoral degree in Music Composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he studied with Claude Baker, Sven-David Sandström and David Dzubay. He is the son of the late composer Merrill Bradshaw, whose music continues to inspire him.

http://danbradshawmusic.com/ 

Dorothy Chang serves as a Professor of Music at the University of British Columbia School of Music. Her music is rooted in the Western art music tradition but often reflects the eclectic mix of musical influences from her youth, ranging from popular and folk music to elements of traditional Chinese music. Highlights from 2019 include performances of her music by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and Northwest Philharmonia, and the world premiere of her work Timekeepers for mixed Chinese and Western ensemble at the San Francisco International Arts Festival. Other highlights include performances of her chamber music at the 2019 Asian Saxophone Congress in Shanghai, and by Bent Frequency, the Cantus Ensemble (Croatia), Helton-Thomas Duo, Land’s End Ensemble, Sound of Dragon (Singapore) and the Ultraviolet Ensemble. Dorothy also served as the composition instructor for the 2019 Orford Academy of Music in Quebec. Currently, she lives with her husband and daughter in Vancouver, British Columbia.

http://www.dorothychang.com/

Neil Thornock is Associate Professor of music composition at Brigham Young University and is an associate director of the School of Music. In January 2018, he premiered Motet, his 80-minute work for piano and electronics. Three of his works were performed at the national congress of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, in conjunction with the publication of thirteen of his carillon works. Firehead Editions published the second volume of The Millennium Book, featuring twenty short works for organ. He also received commissions from cellist Michelle Kesler, for her residency at De Chelly National Park, and from violist Devan Freebairn. In November, he performed Earth, from his Planetarium for organ and electronics, at University of Texas San Antonio.

After receiving a “Presidential Leave Award” from the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU) which relieved me of my teaching load to focus on composition, I mainly worked on three major new works. I finished “Suspend Alight,” a 2017 Barlow Commission for the Mivos Quartet and I wrote a new 30+ minute work for piano and electronics entitled “The Wine Dark Sea” for my duo, the Bacchetto/Sabey Duo. Additionally, I completed a new piece entitled “Rare Bird” for Ensemble Phase, an ensemble from Seoul, Korea made up of five traditional Korean instruments. Performances of “The Wine Dark Sea” piece will begin to take place fall 2020. ”Rare Bird” was premiered at SFSU and the Center for New Music in San Francisco during the first week of November 2019. This piece received its Asian premiere on December 15, 2019 in Seoul. I traveled to Seoul for the performance and to participate in a workshop on my music with students and community members

http://www.benjaminsabey.com