Music to Everyone’s Ears
Clint Needham, left, and Jabez Co each have earned international music composition awards this semester. (Needham photo courtesy of OWU’s Office of Marketing and Communication, Co photo by Linda O’Horo)
The year is beginning on a high note for the Ohio Wesleyan University Department of Music. Less than a month into the semester, the department already has announced two international music composition awards.
Faculty member and composer Clint Needham, D.M., has been selected as the winner of the 2011 Barlow Prize, an international award presented annually by The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. And senior Jabez Co of Manila, Philippines, has won an original composition award from the Mu Phi Epsilon international professional music fraternity. The award recognizes the most outstanding chamber music composition by an undergraduate student.
Along with Needham’s award, the OWU faculty member earns a $12,000 commission to compose a major new work for woodwind quintet. The composition will premiere in 2013 when it is performed nationwide by the acclaimed Imani Winds, Fifth House Ensemble, and Orpheus Winds. Needham was selected for the prize from among 170 composer applications from several countries worldwide.
And Co, who earned the 2011 Mu Phi Epsilon award in Division I, Class B, receives a $200 prize for his work. The category includes compositions of up to six minutes in length and written for either instrument or voice.
Co’s award-winning composition, “Viva,” is a five-minute piece scored for flute, violin, and piano. “Viva” is the third movement of a three-part, 15-minute composition titled “Danzika.”
Read more about Needham’s award and Co’s award.
Congratulations to these talented members of the OWU family!