The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University has awarded its annual Barlow Prize of $10,000 to Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez of Mexico City to compose a new work for percussion ensemble.
An international performing consortium of three prominent percussion ensembles will premiere the work in 2009: Nexus of Toronto, Kroumata of Stockholm and So Percussion of New York.
The judging panel included the endowment’s board of advisors: Melinda Wagner, Claude Baker, Lansing McLoskey, Daniel Gawthrop and Steven Ricks. John Costa served as a guest judge.
Sanchez-Gutierrez holds an associate professorship in composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He also serves as composer-in-residence at the Morelia International New Music Festival and has similar duties with the Binghamton Philharmonic. In 2000, the Mexican daily “Publico” named him Person of the Year.
In addition to the award given to Sanchez-Gutierrez, the endowment granted a total of $76,000 to 12 other composers: Robert Beaser, Ross Bauer, Eric Moe, Ronald Smith, Christopher Tignor, Peter Gilbert, Lawrence Moss, David Sanford, Matthew Barnson, Ethan Wickman, Bruce Polay and Peter McMurray.
Each year, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition awards the winning Barlow Prize composer between $10,000 and $20,000 to compose a new work. In all, the organization has commissioned 204 new works by 170 composers in the last 25 years.
The endowment was established in 1983 when Milton A. and Gloria Barlow of Chevy Chase, Md., made a donation to the composition area of BYU’s School of Music.
For more information, contact Thomas Durham at (801) 422-3226.