Greetings, jazz fans!
Selecting the winners for the 2012 and 3rd Annual Ithaca College Jazz Composition Competition was particularly challenging this year. We received a huge number of quality entries from all over the world — quite literally — in both the college/pro category and the new high school composer category. Entries were not only compelling musically, but quite varied stylistically. Pieces were judged completely anonymously; the judges had no knowledge of the identity of the writers.
This year, we have made a one-time addition to the publicized prizes. Originally, the IC Jazz Ensemble had decided that to perform the two winners from each category with guest trumpet artist Terell Stafford as soloist on December 7th, and provide the winners with a DVD recording of their piece. However, we have also chosen to perform two additional pieces which were awarded honorable mention in the college/pro category. Those four composers will all receive a DVD of their pieces performed with Terell.
In addition, the IC jazz ensemble will rehearse and informally record the runner-up in the high school category (although it will not be performed at the Dec 7th concert).
So, without further delay... the final results are:
College/Pro composer category:
2012 WINNER: ROLO TOMASSI by Alex Lee-Clark of Jamaica Plain, MA who is awarded the $200 prize.
2012 RUNNER-UP: SUSURRUS by Christopher Schmitz of Winfield, KS.
2012 RUNNER-UP: ACROSS THE THRESHOLD by Vladimir Nikolov of Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
High School composer category:
2012 WINNER: SKETCH by Jeric Rocamora of Roseville, CA, who is awarded the $100 prize.
2012 RUNNER-UP: BAD MONKEY by Chase Christensen of Kearney, NE.
We are keeping all the entries in our library and hope to perform more of them in the near future.
We hope to see everyone at the concert on December 7th in Ford Hall at the Ithaca College School of Music! Additional questions can be directed to Mike Titlebaum in the School of Music.
If you can't attend the concert live, the entire December 7th 8:15PM show will be web streamed live at https://www.ithaca.edu/music/live/.
