Global Music Awards: March 2012 Honorees
Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn receives GMA's Best of Show honors for his original compositions of Jokers Wild, chamber orchestra with solo percussion and trumpet, and Antiphonal Fanfare, symphonic band. Hard-hitting and highly original, his music is performed widely throughout the United States and Europe by groups like Composers Inc., the Kiev Philharmonic, the Conundrum Ensemble, the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, and the Interlochen Chamber Players. He is also an accomplished conductor and string bassist. Awards include a 1st prize in the William R. Wiley Exposition in Fine Arts for his composition Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2005). Sternfeld-Dunn has received grants from Meet the Composer and the Visual, Performing, and Literary Arts Committee. He is an Associate Professor of Music at Wichita State University. He received his undergraduate degree in music from California State University, master’s degree in music composition from Washington State University and doctorate in music composition for the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.
Silver Medal Winners - Outstanding Achievement
American composer Mark Abel receives GMA's Award of Excellence for lyrics in his album, The Dream Gallery. Abel wrote both the music and lyrics to this seventy minute work that explores a character-driven psychogeography of California. Abel's lyrics are observations of the California dream that have an operatic/poetic feel and satirical bite. The lyrics confront unsettling issues: predatory competition, yuppie ladder-climbing, immigrant struggles, loneliness, racism and environmental degradation. His music blends the nuance of classical composition with the immediacy of the vernacular. Abel briefly attended Stanford University, became a guitarist, bassist and songwriter in the '70 and '80s New York rock scene, shifted to journalism and became foreign editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, but his curiosity lead him back to classical music and an investigation of 19th and 20th century composers. Abel also receives GMA's Award of Merit for creativity/originality.
GMA's Award of Excellence goes to David Boswell in the categories of electric instrumental within a group and for composition for Track One of his album, Windows. Boswell is a guitar innovator who wrote all eleven tracks of the album. His music is modern jazz showing influences of Pat Metheny. Often cinematic, his playing is lyrical and melodic, and the performances are unpredictable, surprising, and filled with rich melodies and colorful ensembles. Boswell worked with rock bands before moving to Los Angeles where he earned a degree at the Grove School of Music and studied film scoring at the University of California Los Angeles. Boswell also receives GMA's Award of Merit for cover design for Windows. The music in Windows is part of his fourth and most adventurous album. His first solo album was Hold Tight To Your Dreams issued in 2004, followed by Bridge Of Art in 2006 and I Like That issued in 2009.
Lawrence Golan and his students at the University of Denver playing in the Lamont Symphony Orchestra receive GMA's Award of Excellence for the student album; Beethoven 7 & Beethoven 7.1. The Lamont Symphony Orchestra is the resident orchestra at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. It is made up of both undergraduate and graduate music majors and performs seven orchestral concerts and two operas each year. Golan's students also receive GMA's Award of Merit for student instrumental music. In this album the orchestra plays Beethoven's 7th symphony which is structured in the typical four movement form. The second half of the album has William Hill's Symphony No. 2 with the subtitle Beethoven 7.1, due to its numerous references to Beethoven's great 7th symphony. It has been described as Beethoven on steroids.
Award of Excellence honors go to Sohan Roy of BizTV Network of Edapally, Cochin, India for the motion picture sound track of Dam 999. The movie is based on real life incidents of the 1975 Banqiao Dam disaster in China which took an estimated 250,000 lives. Apart from his passion for cinema, Sohan Roy is also an eminent business figure and the CEO of Aries Group of Companies. Dam 999 is being distributed by Warner Brothers in India. The GMA also grants its Award of Merit for original score to Sohan Roy. The film's songs Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu, Dam 999 theme song, and Mujhe Chod Ke were on the 2012 Academy Award's long list. The songs are penned by director Sohan Roy and are composed by Indian music director Ousephachan, a well-known name in Malayalam Cinema. Ousephachanbn has also given music in Bollywood films like Aakrosh and Khatta Meetha. He won a national award for the Malayalam film Ore Kadal.
Bronze Medal Winners - Finalists
Larissa Dedova of the University of Maryland is granted GMA's Award of Merit for her album Claude Debussy, Complete Solo Piano Music. For over 30 years Larissa Dedova has appeared in solo and chamber recitals in concert halls throughout the world at such venues as Carnegie, New York, Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic, St. Petersburg, Teatro Ghione, Rome, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Moscow, Neue Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Salle de Tanneurs, Tours, Lignano Festival Hall, Lignano, Neue Welt Hall, Zwickau and Bulgaria Hall, Sofia. As soloist, she has played with famous orchestras, including St.Petersburg Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Kiev Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Budapest, Moscow Philharmonic and Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, among many others. Dedova was a winner of the Bach International Competition in Leipzig and Pro Piano International Piano Competition in New-York, among others. In 1994 Larissa Dedova was named The Honored Artist of Russia.
The GMA's Award of Merit goes to Juan Fourcade (Spain) for his original motion picture sound track, 2038: The Future of Them. The sound track lifts the story and provides an ambience in support of the moving images. This was the first collaboration between director Ruben Arnáiz and composer Juan Fourcade.
Sweetly Dream by Brian Keith Gamble wins GMA's Award of Merit in the song category and for lyrics. Sweetly Dream is featured in a dream sequence by director Christian Filippella in his film Silver Case. Gamble sings his original song in the film. As an actor, Gamble has also appeared in such independent films as First Snow (Mark Fergus 2006), and The Keeper (Keoni Waxman 2010). His television credits include In Plain Sight (USA), Wild Fire (ABC Family) and The Perfect Daughter (Lifetime). Most recently, Gamble combines his love for theater and film by appearing in Alex Hyde-White's poignant documentary film, Three Days of Hamlet.
The GMA’s Award of Merit goes to Brent Ryan Green of Toy Gun Films for his music video, Like a Vulture, featuring the band, Milk on Milk. The band is pop/electronica out of Oklahoma City, OK. Brent Ryan Green is an American film director and producer.
Larry Groupé receives GMA's Award of Merit for his original score for the film, Straw Dogs. Directed by Rod Lurie starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, James Woods and Alexander Skarsgård and is being released by Sony/Screen Gems. Groupé has two Emmy awards to his credit for best documentary score for Jonas Salk: Personally Speaking, and Residue, a short subject film about the US early involvement in Cambodia. He's also composed the music for a variety of features that have shown at the Sundance, Berlin and Toronto International Festivals. A graduate of the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific, he began his senior year as the recipient of the ASCAP award for student composers. He went on to earn his Masters of Music in Composition at the University of California at San Diego where he studied with Roger Reynolds, Toru Takemitsu and Pauline Oliveros. Subsequently, his composing, orchestrating and conducting skills took him to the world of film scoring where he won the New York Film Award for Best Score.
Skookum Suite Op. 112 by Dr. Kevn Jay Isaacs is granted GMA's Award of Merit in the composition category. Skookum Suite Op. 112 is part of the album, Mad Dances: American Music for Saxophone and Piano released by Albany Records. In the album, Isaacs' Skookum Suite is inspired by the Sasquatch or Skookum who becomes mad, sad and glad as he is discovered by humans and finds true love. Dr. Isaacs is Professor of Music at Western Connecticut State University and teaches courses in theory, composition, and choral studies. He was a Mellon Foundation Faculty Fellow at the School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music of Yale University. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Theory and Composition from Texas Christian University and a doctorate in composition and choral conducting from the University of Arizona.
Paul Rudy receives the GMA's Award of Merit for sound editing and sound mixing for his six CD series, 2012 Stories. 2012 Stories are sound journeys and an ongoing personal tale about being, transforming and becoming. They are stories about discovering a unity of everyone and everything through recordings and live performances. GMA also gives its Award of Merit to Rudy for sound innovation. Rudy is a Rome Prize (2010), Guggenheim (2008), Fulbright (1997) and Wurlitzer Foundation Fellow (2007 and 2009). He has won the 1st prize in Sounds Electric ’07 Competition, 1st in the EMS Prize (Sweden), Citta di Udine (Prize ex aequo), and has received recognition and commissions from IMEB, Bourges (2008 commission), SEAMUS, He teaches at the University of Missouri at Kansas City where he received the 2008 Kauffman Award for Artistic Excellence.
The Think on These Things album by Daniel Solberg and Jackie Azar is granted GMA's Award of Merit in the judging category, listener impact: motivational/inspirational. The album is a free resource for military chaplains and troops on the battlefield. Azar composed the music and Solberg with DSol Productions arranged and produced it.