Audio Inversions - 2008 Composition Competition

	Press Release January 15^th, 2009 Audio Inversions is pleased to announce that Baljinder Singh Sekhon, II has won the 2008 Audio Inversions Composition Competition for his work, Lou for solo cello and percussion orchestra. This piece will be performed by Audio Inversions on our last concert of the season on May 18^th, 2009. We would also like to recognize the outstand work of composer Delvyn Case (Gemini Variations) by awarding him an honorable mention. The process of selecting a winner was a long and difficult task -- we received nearly 100 submissions from all over the world. We have retained several scores for possible performance in the future, either during the Audio Inversions Summer Festival or on one of next season’s programs. We would like to thank everyone who submitted for sharing their work with us, and wish everyone the very best in future musical endeavors. Winner BALJINDER SINGH SEKHON, II began his musical studies in percussion when he was seven years old and started composing when he was thirteen. A versatile composer whose award winning music ranges from works for full orchestra to gamelan ensemble to concert band, Baljinder Sekhon has received significant praise wherever his works have been performed. Winner of the 2006 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP and the 2007 Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize from the Eastman School of Music, Sekhon is also the laureate of the 2007 Barbara B. Smith Composition Commission for best new work for Gamelan, the 2008 Belle Gitelman Award, and received honorable mention for the 2006 Frederick Fennell Prize for best new work for Concert Band from ASCAP and the College Band Directors National Association. Recent and upcoming performances of commissioned works include the premiere of Gradient for Saxophone and Piano at the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance’s Biennial Convention and the premiere of Pitch-Dark Path for Horn and String Quintet at the New World Symphony’s Musicians’ Forum chamber music series in April 2008. Sekhon was recently commissioned by Musica Nova, under the direction of Brad Lubman, to compose a new work to celebrate the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter. Winner of the 2008 Boehmler Foundation Commissioning Prize, Baljinder Sekhon will compose a new work for Wind Quintet and Concert Band for performance in 2009. Also for 2008/2009, Sekhon will compose a new work for Oboe and Four Percussionists to be premiered at Arizona State University, pianist Zuzanna A. Szewczyk will premier a new solo piano work, and the Eastman School of Music’s Composers’ Sinfonietta will perform a work for large chamber ensemble. Baljinder Sekhon has been awarded a fellowship to attend the 2008 Composers Conference at Wellesley College, where his new work Little Bel for Sinfonietta will receive its premiere. Sekhon was also a fellow at the 2006 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Institute. Currently a PhD candidate in composition at the Eastman School of Music, Baljinder Sekhon has recently performed at the Festival Spaziomusica in Cagliari, Italy as a member of the Eastman Broadband Ensemble. He also performs regularly with the Ossia New Music Ensemble of which he currently serves as President. At Eastman, he has taught Introduction to Computer Music, Advanced Computer Music, and he will begin teaching Composition for Non-Majors in the Fall of 2009. Honorable Mention DELVYN CASE DELVYN CASE (b. 1974) is a composer, conductor, scholar, and educator based in Boston. He holds degrees from Yale (B.A. summa cum laude) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed the Ph.D. in composition. Delvyn Case has received honors and fellowships from numerous organizations, including BMI, The Society of Composers, The MacDowell Colony, The New York Virtuoso Singers, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Composers Conference at Wellesley, The Chicago Ensemble, Sounds New, and The College Music Society, among others. In 1999, the extensive second movement of his sacred vocal work No Secret Hidden was a finalist for the Orvis International Prize in Vocal Composition. This piece, which also was honored with a BMI Student Composer Award in 2000, was released on a Gesher Records CD by baritone Lawrence Indik and pianist Charles Abramovic in 2004. He has been commissioned by virtuoso saxophonist Marshall Taylor, Boston Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist Douglas Yeo, and the Triton Brass Quintet, which premiered his new quintet, Perichoresis, at Tanglewood. He is a member of Boston's oldest and most repsected composers' collective, Composers in Red Sneakers, Inc. He has also served as composer-in-residence at the MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, Indiana and for Chamber Music NOW, Inc. He has composed a symphony, a saxophone concerto, an oratorio based upon African-American spirituals, several song-cycles, multiple chamber works, and a recent multimedia piece premiered by Boston's Radius Ensemble. Many of these pieces are sacred and/or liturgical in nature. His composition teachers have included Steven Mackey, Ezra Laderman, David Rakowski, Sebastian Currier, Elliott Schwartz, James Primosch, and Jay Reise. Delvyn Case is the composer of The Prioress's Tale, a 75-minute chamber opera inspired by Chaucer, whose January 2008 premiere garnered feature preview articles in the Boston Globe and the South Shore Patriot Ledger. A parable about the power of forgiveness to heal the wounds of religious intolerance, the production was funded by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a variety of churches and other community organizations, and numerous private donations. The touring version of The Prioress's Tale will be performed twice during the 2008-2009 season: once at Yale University and once in Newton, Massachusetts, in a production jointly sponsored by Hebrew College and Andover-Newton Theoogical School. Audio Inversions – A New Music Concert Series Holly Norman, Executive Director Karmen Suter, Artistic Director James D. Norman, Composer-in-Residence Anthony Suter, Composer-in-Residence If you have any questions please visit our website at www.audioinversions.com, or contact us via email at jnorman@audioinversions.com.

January 15^th, 2009

Audio Inversions is pleased to announce that Baljinder Singh Sekhon, II has won the 2008 Audio Inversions Composition Competition for his work, Lou for solo cello and percussion orchestra. This piece will be performed by Audio Inversions on our last concert of the season on May 18^th, 2009.

We would also like to recognize the outstand work of composer Delvyn Case (Gemini Variations) by awarding him an honorable mention.

The process of selecting a winner was a long and difficult task -- we received nearly 100 submissions from all over the world. We have retained several scores for possible performance in the future, either during the Audio Inversions Summer Festival or on one of next season’s programs. We would like to thank everyone who submitted for sharing their work with us, and wish everyone the very best in future musical endeavors.

BALJINDER SINGH SEKHON, II began his musical studies in percussion when he was seven years old and started composing when he was thirteen. A versatile composer whose award winning music ranges from works for full orchestra to gamelan ensemble to concert band, Baljinder Sekhon has received significant praise wherever his works have been performed.

Winner of the 2006 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP and the 2007 Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize from the Eastman School of Music, Sekhon is also the laureate of the 2007 Barbara B. Smith Composition Commission for best new work for Gamelan, the 2008 Belle Gitelman Award, and received honorable mention for the 2006 Frederick Fennell Prize for best new work for Concert Band from ASCAP and the College Band Directors National Association.

Recent and upcoming performances of commissioned works include the premiere of Gradient for Saxophone and Piano at the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance’s Biennial Convention and the premiere of Pitch-Dark Path for Horn and String Quintet at the New World Symphony’s Musicians’ Forum chamber music series in April 2008. Sekhon was recently commissioned by Musica Nova, under the direction of Brad Lubman, to compose a new work to celebrate the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter. Winner of the 2008 Boehmler Foundation Commissioning Prize, Baljinder Sekhon will compose a new work for Wind Quintet and Concert Band for performance in 2009. Also for 2008/2009, Sekhon will compose a new work for Oboe and Four Percussionists to be premiered at Arizona State University, pianist Zuzanna A. Szewczyk will premier a new solo piano work, and the Eastman School of Music’s Composers’ Sinfonietta will perform a work for large chamber ensemble.

Baljinder Sekhon has been awarded a fellowship to attend the 2008 Composers Conference at Wellesley College, where his new work Little Bel for Sinfonietta will receive its premiere. Sekhon was also a fellow at the 2006 Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Institute.

Currently a PhD candidate in composition at the Eastman School of Music, Baljinder Sekhon has recently performed at the Festival Spaziomusica in Cagliari, Italy as a member of the Eastman Broadband Ensemble. He also performs regularly with the Ossia New Music Ensemble of which he currently serves as President. At Eastman, he has taught Introduction to Computer Music, Advanced Computer Music, and he will begin teaching Composition for Non-Majors in the Fall of 2009.

DELVYN CASE (b. 1974) is a composer, conductor, scholar, and educator based in Boston. He holds degrees from Yale (B.A. summa cum laude) and the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed the Ph.D. in composition.

Delvyn Case has received honors and fellowships from numerous organizations, including BMI, The Society of Composers, The MacDowell Colony, The New York Virtuoso Singers, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Composers Conference at Wellesley, The Chicago Ensemble, Sounds New, and The College Music Society, among others. In 1999, the extensive second movement of his sacred vocal work No Secret Hidden was a finalist for the Orvis International Prize in Vocal Composition. This piece, which also was honored with a BMI Student Composer Award in 2000, was released on a Gesher Records CD by baritone Lawrence Indik and pianist Charles Abramovic in 2004. He has been commissioned by virtuoso saxophonist Marshall Taylor, Boston Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist Douglas Yeo, and the Triton Brass Quintet, which premiered his new quintet, Perichoresis, at Tanglewood. He is a member of Boston's oldest and most repsected composers' collective, Composers in Red Sneakers, Inc. He has also served as composer-in-residence at the MasterWorks Festival in Winona Lake, Indiana and for Chamber Music NOW, Inc. He has composed a symphony, a saxophone concerto, an oratorio based upon African-American spirituals, several song-cycles, multiple chamber works, and a recent multimedia piece premiered by Boston's Radius Ensemble. Many of these pieces are sacred and/or liturgical in nature. His composition teachers have included Steven Mackey, Ezra Laderman, David Rakowski, Sebastian Currier, Elliott Schwartz, James Primosch, and Jay Reise.

Delvyn Case is the composer of The Prioress's Tale, a 75-minute chamber opera inspired by Chaucer, whose January 2008 premiere garnered feature preview articles in the Boston Globe and the South Shore Patriot Ledger. A parable about the power of forgiveness to heal the wounds of religious intolerance, the production was funded by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a variety of churches and other community organizations, and numerous private donations. The touring version of The Prioress's Tale will be performed twice during the 2008-2009 season: once at Yale University and once in Newton, Massachusetts, in a production jointly sponsored by Hebrew College and Andover-Newton Theoogical School.