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Last fall, the
ARS sponsored a composition competition for music for recorder quartet with the
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet. The goal was for enrichment of the recorder
répertoire with high quality quartet music by composers from the
United States or Canada
for professional recorder players of all nations.
The
members of the ALSQ judged the competition along with Dutch composer Peter-Jan
Wagemans. The U.S. premier is planned for February 2009 and winning pieces will
be featured in the ALSQ 30th Anniversary Tour. The group will perform the
winning piece on its
30th Anniversary CD due to be released in October 2008. Competition winners
will be honored with a reception and presentation at the Montreal Recorder
Festival in September.
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Matthias Maute, the
competition’s first-place
winner, has achieved an
international reputation as one of the finest recorder and baroque flute
players of his generation and as a composer. In 1990, he won
first
prize in the soloist
category at the prestigious Early Music Competition in Bruges, Belgium.
Matthias is also esteemed for his artistic direction of Ensemble Caprice,
for which
he produces ingenious and fascinating programs. The ensemble has appeared at
several important venues in Europe, North America, Taiwan,
and Israel. In addition to his work with Ensemble Caprice, Matthias is
invited to appear as a soloist at important festivals in Europe and the
United States, as well as with the baroque ensemble Rebel. In 2003 and 2005,
he was the featured recorder virtuoso at the Boston Early Music Festival and
he will make his debut at New York City's Lincoln Center in December 2008.
His compositions play an important place in the world of contemporary
recorder music and are published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Amadeus, Moeck,
and Carus. Matthias has made 20
recordings on the Analekta, Vanguard Classics, Bella Musica, Dorian, Bridge,
and Atma Classique labels. He is a professor at McGill University in
Montreal. |
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Having worked as a librarian and author of 13 books, William Ashworth,
our second-place
winner, is now a full
time composer. He received his master's of arts
in theory and composition from Washington State University and did post-MA
work at the University of Washington. He taught at Washington State
University and founded the WSU
Consort, an early music ensemble. Recently performed works have been
presented in Oregon and Washington. His composition Music for String
Quartet was chosen to represent Washington State University at the
Inland Composers Symposium. Four of his books have been honored with
Colonial Dames Notable Books, the Oregon Book Award, the Great Plains
Distinguished Book Award,
and the Kansas Notable Book Award. William Ashworth is a member of the
Nation Association of Composers, the American Federation of Composers, Phi
Mu Alpha Symposium,
and the Authors’ Guild. |
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Third-place
winner Glen Shannon composes
and publishes music for recorder ensembles under the label Screaming Mary Music,
and has also been published by PRB Productions and Moeck Verlag. His
compositions have been prize winners in contests sponsored by the Chicago
Recorder Society and the San Francisco Early Music Society. Glen served three
years as president
of the East Bay (CA) Recorder Society, and currently serves the ARS as the
editor of
the Members' Library Editions. He performs on recorder and traverso with Baroque
Etcetera, a Baroque ensemble in the Berkeley area.
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