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Report From the Chair

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Ed Adams

2023 Report

2023 was another successful year for the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at BYU. We had 632 composers submit applications from 46 countries around the world. The talented Viet Cuong was selected from over 450 prize applications as the 2023 Barlow Prize winner. Competition was so tight that we were compelled to provide Luis Ramirez a Barlow Prize Honorable Mention as well. Viet Cuong will compose a new work for solo guitar that will be premiered by renowned guitarists Ahmed Dickinson, Martha Masters, Meng Su, and Xuifei Yang.

Additionally, from 178 General and Latter-Day Saints applications, 12 composers received commissions to create new music for ensembles as varied as A Roomful of Teeth, Ensemble Kompopolex, Low Frequency Trio, The Braeburn Brass, and The Dream Unfinished.

We bid a fond farewell to two excellent advisors in 2023, Benjamin Taylor and Chen Yi. Their significant combined experience, in collaboration with fellow advisors, resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars being awarded to worthy composers around the world. Chen Yi provided a tremendous spirit of acceptance and encouragement, along with many insightful recommendations for performers, consortium partners, and new advisors. Ben was counted on to bring his unique, positive energy to all his interactions with the Endowment (and not just in those morning mountain runs). We wish both Ben and Chen Yi well in all their future endeavors -- they will be sorely missed.

Our two new advisors in 2023 were Xi Wang and Juri Seo. They were both such a pleasure to work with, and while Xi Wang was unable to fill a full term on the Board of Advisors, we are thrilled to have Juri continue with us for the next three years. Juri is a Korean-American composer and pianist, as well as an Associate Professor of Music and Director of Graduate Studies (Composition) at Princeton University.

We are pleased to see the legacy of Milton and Gloria Barlow continuing and growing in such positive and diverse ways. We are so grateful that the combined efforts of all involved with this wonderful endowment are having such a tremendous impact on new music nationally and internationally.