Bowdoin Music Festival Receives National Award

BRUNSWICK – Lewis Kaplan, founder and director of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, accepted the prestigious Adventurous Programming Award from Chamber Music America in a ceremony in New York City on January 17, 2010.

The award, given annually by Chamber Music America and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), is presented to ensembles and presenters/festivals whose programming demonstrates a commitment to music written in the past 25 years. The Bowdoin Festival received the award in the Large Presenter category. Four other concert presenters and performing groups joined Kaplan in the ceremony, receiving a commemorative plaque and a monetary award from Chamber Music America, the national service organization for the chamber music profession.

Contemporary composers featured during the 2009 Festival included Pulitzer prize-winning composer George Crumb, who was on hand for performances of six of his compositions in the Festival Fridays and Upbeat! series, and at the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music. Additionally, Upbeat! audiences heard the New England premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Quartet No. 3, Libby Larsen’s Four on the Floor (a Maine premiere), and Donald Freund’s Summersongs (String Quartet No. 4), a world premiere.

Executive Director Peter Simmons noted that the Gamper Festival was proud to present world premieres of four student works, including the winner of the Festival’s second annual composition competition, and seven Maine premieres by established composers. “A particular highlight,” commented Simmons, “were the seven premieres of student works presented in the Artists of Tomorrow series. An important goal of this Festival is for young composers to receive skilled readings of their works, and to hear the rewarding response of an appreciative audience.”

 

FMI, contact Peter Simmons