ARS Awards for 2026

ARS Awards for 2026
A Highlight of ARS Presidential Honor & Distinguished Achievement Award Recipients

Each year since 1986, the ARS Board has taken time to recognize significant contributions to the North American recorder movement. Every year, it is a pleasure to have so many wonderful individuals to choose from, but we hope you’ll agree that our choices for this year are beyond deserving of the highest distinctions the ARS awards.

Patricia Petersen has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the ARS Distinguished Achievement Award. Pat holds an MFA in Early Music Performance, is a Certified Teacher of the ARS, a director emerita of Amherst Early Music Inc., past director of Mountain Collegium, and former Music Director of the Triangle Recorder Society of North Carolina. Her passion for unraveling the mysteries of early manuscripts and exploring Baroque dance has inspired both amateurs and professionals across the country. It’s no exaggeration to say that Pat shaped the culture of recorder and early music workshops as they now exist throughout North America, even creating workshops in areas that were previously “deserts” of recorder activity.

Pat was profiled in our winter edition of American Recorder. The unanimous Board approval is a testament to her selfless work to promote the recorder and its music while serving as a mentor to younger recorder teachers. A formal award presentation will be held tomorrow, July 18th, at the Amherst Early Music Festival final concert.

Mark Davenport has been selected as the 2026 recipient of the ARS Presidential Honor Award. Nominated by Board President Jody Miller and unanimously supported by the Board of Directors, Mark has spent his entire career promoting the recorder. Perhaps the pinnacle of Mark's achievements is the 2004 creation of the Recorder Music Center (RMC) at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, where Mark is a Professor of Music. The RMC curates a large library of both circulating and archival recorder music, houses a large collection of recorders and other early instruments, and serves as a repository for records of the American Recorder Society.

Mark was formally recognized at the Berkeley Early Music Festival on June 8th as part of the Recorder Relay, at which time he joined a list of influential recorder professionals who have made a significant impact on the recorder community. Mark's father, LaNoue Davenport, was among the first generation of recorder professionals in the US and was bestowed a similar honor in 1995. Mark was profiled in our recent summer edition of American Recorder.

We thank these two incredible people for their immense accomplishments and all they contribute to our musical community. Congratulations to Mark and Pat for the well-deserved honor!