Currier Earns International Prize for Chamber Music Work 'Static'

Currier Earns International Prize for Chamber Music Work 'Static'

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/ADVANCE/ NEW YORK, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- "Static," a chamber music work by Manhattan composer Sebastian Currier, has earned the 2007 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The name of the six-movement piece for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano reflects "different meanings of the word 'static,' which can be a state of quiet balance or the erratic noise between radio stations," said Marc Satterwhite, a UofL music professor who directs the music award.

Currier, who teaches at Columbia University, studied at the Manhattan and Julliard schools of music. He taught at Julliard from 1992 to 1998 and holds a doctorate in musical arts from Julliard, where he studied with American composer Milton Babbitt.

His winning work was commissioned by Copland House of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., for its resident ensemble, Music from Copland House, with funds from Meet the Composer, a national organization supporting new works by composers. The ensemble premiered the piece at Columbia's Miller Theatre in February 2005 and recorded it for Koch International Classics.

"Static," named winner of the 21st Grawemeyer music prize at a UofL Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony concert today in Carnegie Hall, was selected from among 153 nominations worldwide.

Currier holds several other prestigious music awards, including the Berlin Prize, Rome Prize and an academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Among his other compositions are "Verge," "Crossfade," "Scarlatti Cadences and Brainstorm," "Remix," "Quiet Time" and "Night Mass."

The Grawemeyer Foundation at UofL annually awards $1 million -- $200,000 each -- for outstanding works in music composition, education, ideas improving world order, religion and psychology. The Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion is given by the university and the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Winners of the other 2007 Grawemeyer awards were announced last fall.

For more details, call Satterwhite at 502-852-1787 or see www.grawemeyer.org.

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Source: University of Louisville

CONTACT: Marc Satterwhite of University of Louisville, +1-502-852-1787

Web site: http://www.louisville.edu/
http://www.grawemeyer.org/

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