The American Prize

The American Prize is a set of annual nonprofit national competitions in the performing arts which recognizes and rewards commercial and noncommercial recorded performances of classical music in the United States based on submitted applications. There is no live competition.^[1] The award is bestowed at professional, college/university, community and high school levels in composition, piano, voice, chamber music, conducting, ensemble performance and in a number of other areas.^[2][3] The jury consists of well known performing artists in each area, with the conductor and composer David Katz serving as chief judge.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Artists and ensembles self-nominate through an application process or are nominated by a teacher, parent, board member or colleague.^[10] Evaluation is a key component of the competition; applicants who reach finalist status or higher receive a written evaluation from a member of the judging panel. Among judges are composer Judith Lang Zaimont, pianist Jeffrey Biegel and Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet. Winners of each category receive a cash award.

Top prize winners

Winners of the first prize award by year in all professional categories.

Composition

	Orchestra	Choral	Chamber Music	Band	Theater
2011	Jesse Ayers	Ted Vives	not awarded	not awarded	not awarded
2012	Michael Gatonska[11]	Brian Holmes	not awarded	not awarded	not awarded
2013	Alessandra Salvati	Jonathan Santore	Michael Deak	Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn	not awarded
2014	Gregg Wramage	Dominick DiOrio	Piotr Szewczyk	Laurence Bitensky	Todd Goodman
2015	Angelique Poteat	Travis Alford	David Garner (tie) Judith Lang Zaimont (tie)	David Avshalomov	Yiguo Yan

Piano

	Solo	Concerto
2011	Lin-Yu Wang	not awarded
2012	Nathanael May	Sarah S. Chan
2013	Petronel Malan	Anthony Michael Cornet
2014	Nassib Nassar	Kasandra Keeling
2015	Michael Angelucci	Bill John Newbrough

Voice

	Opera (women)	Opera (men)	Art Song / Oratorio (women)	Art Song / Oratorio (men)
2011	Laura Strickling	Jonathan Beyer	Christine Steyer	Blake Friedman
2012	Suzanne Vinnik	Christian Ketter	Sharin Apostolou	Matthew Garrett
2013	Suzanne Vinnik	Christian Ketter	Emily Marvosh	Darren Chase
2014	Megan Marino	Mitchell Hutchings	Sarah Davis	Leo Rado
2015	Aundi Marie Moore	Peter Lightfoot	Tania Coambs	Jorell Williams

Chamber music

2014	Atlanta Chamber Players
2015	The New Consort

Orchestral

	Orchestral performance	Conducting
2010	Lancaster Festival Orchestra	Gary Sheldon, Lancaster Festival Orchestra
2011	Pensacola Symphony Orchestra	Christopher Zimmerman, Fairfax Symphony Orchestra
2012	National Philharmonic	Dirk Meyer, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra
2013	not awarded	not awarded
2014	Park Avenue Chamber Symphony	not awarded
2015	Western Piedmont Symphony	Olivier Ochanine, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

Choral

	Choral performance (professional)	Choral performance (community)	Choral performance (collegiate)
2010	Roomful of Teeth	Choral Arts	Washington & Jefferson College Camerata Singers
2011	Washington Bach Consort	Pacific Lutheran University Choral Union	Mansfield University Concert Choir
2012		Ensemble Companio	East Carolina University Chamber Singers
2013		Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble	Iowa State Singers
2014		Choral Arts Initiative	The University of North Dakota Concert Choir
2015	Houston Chamber Choir	Peninsula Women's Chorus	USC Thornton Chamber Singers

References

1. "The American Prize rewards the best-recorded performances by individual artists and ensembles in the U.S." MidlandsBiz, Columbia, SC, October 8, 2014.
2. Eiseman, Lee. "National Prize Recognizes Local Composer." The Boston Musical Intelligencer, September 24, 2014.
3. "Michael Angelucci Wins the American Prize in Piano," The Peabody Post, November 16, 2015.
4. Lewis, John. "Tom Hall & Choral Arts Win American Prize Awards." Baltimore, October 22, 2014.
5. "UNLV Opera director wins American Prize." Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 21, 2014.
6. "Tara Curtis places second in The American Prize in Voice." KCMetropolis, Kansas City, KS, September 16, 2014.
7. "Nashville composer Daniel Elder shines in the American Prize." ArtsNash, Nashville, TN, September 26, 2014.
8. "Crane director wins 'The American Prize in Opera Performance' for Menotti's opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors." North Country Now, Potsdam, NY, January 2, 2013.
9. "SSYO Places Third Nationally in the American Prize Competition." Saratoga Today, Saratoga Springs, NY, October 18, 2013.
11. "Composer Michael Gatonska Awarded The American Prize in Composition."

External links

• The American Prize