MARIJOSIUS AWARD, 2022: Winners

 

Vytautas Marijosius

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts, David (Volosin) Katz, founder and chief judge, is honored to announce the 2022 winners and runners-up in orchestral programming, The Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award. Congratulations! 

The American Prize—Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming honors the memory of the great Lithuanian conductor, Maestro Vytautas Marijosius, music director of the Lithuanian State Opera, and for nearly thirty-five years Director of Orchestral Activities at the Hartt School of Music. The Prize recognizes and rewards the best achievement in the unique field of orchestral programming, where the selection of repertoire by knowledgeable, creative and courageous music directors builds orchestras and audiences, educates young people and adults, and enriches the community.  

You can read more about Maestro Marijosius here: http://rememberingmarijosius.blogspot.com
Or visit the collection of historic documents, programs and photographs of the artist here: https://marijosius.tumblr.com/

Complete listings of finalists and semi-finalists in The American Prize competitions may be found elsewhere on this blog. Please use the chronological tools column to find specific results.

The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation's most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts. The American Prize is unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States at professional, college/university, community and high school levels, based on submitted recordings. Now in its twelfth year, The American Prize has awarded more than $100,000 since its founding and is offered annually in many areas of the performing arts. Thousands of artists from all fifty states have derived benefit from their participation in the contests of The American Prize, representing literally hundreds of communities and arts organizations across the nation.  Information about the 2022-23 season of contests has been updated and applications are now being accepted. (http://theamericanprize.org)

Please make us aware of any misprints: theamericanprize@gmail.com

The American Prize in Orchestral Programming—Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award, 2022

The American Prize winner: 

Eckart Preu
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra
Cincinnati OH

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra

The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra creates intimate, transformative experiences that connect the musically curious. The CCO is an independent ensemble of 32 professional musicians that marked its 45^th anniversary in 2019 and is widely recognized as one of the leading performing arts organizations in the region. Eckart Preu was named CCO music director in October, 2016. Summermusik concerts take place during the month of August, and are presented in various beautiful venues all around Greater Cincinnati. The festival hosts three distinct series – Mainstage at SCPA, A Little Afternoon Musik and Chamber Crawls – each one a layer in the unique voice of the CCO, performing music from Bach to rock. Under the exciting and creative leadership of Maestro Preu the festival has experienced unprecedented growth in the past two years. Summermusik 2022 will be the 8th season of the annual festival that the Cincinnati Enquirer praised as “the most imaginative, most entertaining three weeks on the classical music calendar.”

2nd Place (there was a tie):
Alexandra Dee
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra

Indiana PA

Alexandra Dee

Alexandra Dee is the Director of Orchestral Studies and assistant professor of violin and viola at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her previous positions include Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of St. Francis; music director and conductor of Chicago’s South Loop Symphony; and cover conductor for Joffrey Ballet, with whom she debuted in 2017. Also at home in the opera pit, she is a frequent guest conductor at Manitoba Underground Opera. Dee completed a DMA in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, where she studied with Victor Yampolsky. She holds an MM in orchestral conducting and a BME from Florida State University, where she studied with Alexander Jiménez. Her positions at FSU included founding music director and conductor of the Campus Orchestra. An advocate for contemporary music, Dee has premiered numerous works by living composers. In particular, she champions the works of her husband, Roger Zare.

2nd Place (there was a tie):
Thomas Dickey
OSU Symphony Orchestra

Oklahoma City OK

Thomas Dickey

Second Prize Winner of the 2019 Mozart & Tchaikovsky International Conducting Competition, Thomas Taylor Dickey has been reviewed by critics as a "dynamic and exciting conductor" whose conducting is "imbued with aplomb, energy, and pathos." Thomas currently serves as the Director of Orchestral Studies at Oklahoma State University, where he conducts the OSU Symphony Orchestra and guides all aspects of the orchestra and graduate orchestral conducting programs.  He is also the Music Director & Conductor of the OSU Youth & Community Orchestras.  Previously, he was the Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and Conductor of the Dubuque Symphony Youth Orchestra (IA). Thomas has conducted many professional orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, in addition to numerous all-state, honors, and university orchestras in twenty-eight states. Thomas holds degrees from Eastern Illinois University, LSU, and the University of Georgia.  He has worked with conductors such as Jin Wang, Jorma Panula, Carl Topilow, Christopher Zimmerman, and Diane Wittry. 

3rd Place:
David A. Rahbee
University of Washington Symphony Orchestra

Seattle WA

David A. Rahbee

David Alexander Rahbee is currently Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle, where he is Director of Orchestral Activities and is chair of orchestral conducting studies. He is recipient of the American-Austrian Foundation's 2003 Karajan Fellowship for Young Conductors, the 2005 International Richard-Wagner-Verband Stipend, and the Acanthes Centre in Paris in 2007. He has recently worked with the Seattle Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, Orchesterakademie der Bochumer Symphoniker, the Seattle Modern Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, and the Guernsey Symphony Orchestra. He participated in masterclasses with Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Jorma Panula, Zdeněk Mácal, Peter Eötvös, and Zoltán Peskó. His principal conducting teachers were Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo at the Monteux School. He holds degrees from Indiana University, New England Conservatory, and University of Montreal. He also studied at Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna.  www.davidrahbee.com