Judges, 2010-2011


The distinguished judges for The American Prize are as varied in skills and experience and nearly as geographically diverse as we hope the winners of The American Prize to be. They are assigned to specific competitions based on expertise and areas of interest.


If you are interested in being considered as a judge for any of our upcoming competitions, please see the “Call for Judges” under NEWS, or click here.


Additional judges will be added to the panel regularly, as needed.



David Katz, chief judge, Danbury, CT


***


Leonard Atherton, Muncie, IN


Gregory J. Aune, Saint Peter, MN


Timothy J. Brown, Denver, CO


Allen Cohen, Sleepy Hollow, NY


Mimi S. Daitz, New York, NY


David B. Gardner, Winfield, KS


David Griggs-Janower, Albany, NY


Peter Stanley Martin, New York, NY


William McConnell, Laurinburg, NC


Nancy Menk, Notre Dame, IN


Michael Ogdon, Fresno, CA


Greg A Steinke, Depot Bay, OR


Jonathan Sternberg, Philadelphia, PA


Julia Vasquez, Missoula, MT

 


Muncie, IN
Leonard Atherton joined the Ball State University School of Music Faculty in 1982. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Muncie Symphony Orchestra and former director of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra. Atherton has held music director positions with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Young Artists Choral Program of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia and the University of Pennsylvania Choruses. He has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Atherton has conducted in Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan, Canada and England. Leonard Atherton served as the Cover Conductor for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and honored as a Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana’s civilian award, for his service in music to the State. He is a National Board member of the Conductors’ Guild and Treasurer of the College Orchestra Directors Association.
Saint Peter, MN
Associate Professor of Music Gregory J. Aune is in his fifteenth year as conductor of the Gustavus Choir. A 1976 graduate of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, he holds graduate degrees from the University of Iowa including a D.M.A. awarded in 1987. His postgraduate experiences include study and performance with the Robert Shaw Choral Institute at Carnegie Hall. At Gustavus, Dr. Aune conducts the Gustavus Choir, the Chamber Singers, and St. Ansgar’s Chorus, teaches classes in conducting and choral literature, and serves as music director of the annual Christmas in Christ Chapel services. Choirs under his direction have twice appeared at conventions of the North Central ACDA and at conventions of the Kansas and Minnesota Music Educators Associations. Dr. Aune is serving as Music Director and Conductor of the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra in 2009-10. In addition to his choral work at Gustavus, Aune serves as Sanctuary Choir director at First Lutheran Church in St. Peter.


Denver, CO
Timothy Brown holds a Doctor of Arts in Theory and Composition with a secondary emphasis in Choral Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado, a Master of Arts in Music Education and Voice from Goddard College and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY-Fredonia. Currently a vocal music teacher in the Denver Public Schools, Dr. Brown is the winner of a Meet the Composer Grant and four ASCAP Plus Awards. His music can be heard on Beauport Classical and Capstone Records and includes works for string orchestra, brass quintet and chorus. Dr. Brown was a fellow at the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Melodious Accord Composers Workshop, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Weill Music Institute. He has worked with such distinguished composers as John Corigliano and Alice Parker, and conductors Marin Alsop and Harold Farberman. Brown is a member of the Conductors Guild, The League of American Orchestras, Chorus America and the American Choral Directors Association among many others.


Sleepy Hollow, NY
Allen Cohen received a doctorate in composition from the City University of New York, where he studied with Thea Musgrave, Bruce Saylor, and David Del Tredici. Currently Associate Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, he has taught at Hunter College, New York University, and Manhattanville College. He has received a Meet the Composer residency grant and many ASCAP Plus awards. Five of his compositions have been released on commercial compact discs. He has written incidental scores for films and off-Broadway plays, arranged dance music for five Broadway musicals, conducted on Broadway and elsewhere, and performed extensively as a pianist. He is the author of Howard Hanson in Theory and Practice (Praeger/Greenwood) and the popular children’s book That’s So Funny I Forgot to Laugh! (Scholastic), and co-author of Writing Musical Theater (Palgrave Macmillan). Website: www.allenlcohen.com
New York, NY
Professor Daitz was a member of the Music Department, The City College/CUNY, for many years. She directed their chorus and vocal ensemble and taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in music history, theory, ear training, voice, and bibliography. After retiring from teaching she became music director of the Riverdale Choral Society and lead them on tours in Cuba and Estonia. Mimi Daitz has also been active as a musicologist, specializing in fin de siècle French vocal music and 20th-century Estonian choral music and has published numerous articles in both areas. In 2004 her book Ancient Song Recovered: The Life and Music of Veljo Tormis was published by Pendragon Press and has been hailed as a vital contribution to our knowledge of one of the most important composers of choral music in the second half of the 20th century. In 2010, volume I of the 5-volume complete, critical edition of the songs of Fauré, which she co-edited with Jean-Michel Nectoux, will be published in Paris by Leduc.


Winfield, KS
David B. Gardner (DMA, The University of Arizona) is Director of Choirs at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a second-place finish in the graduate division of the 2001 American Choral Directors Association National Student Conducting Awards Competition. Dr. Gardner’s Carnegie Hall conducting debut was in March of 2005, and he will appear there again in March of 2010 under the auspices of Distinguished Concerts International, New York. In 2008, the Southwestern College choir sang under his direction during Easter Sunday Mass at the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. In 2002, he was selected to lead the Grammy Award winning Oregon Bach Festival Choir and Orchestra under the tutelage of Maestro Helmuth Rilling in the Oregon Bach Festival Masterclass in Conducting. Dr. Gardner is the President-Elect for the Kansas chapter of the American Choral Directors Association, and is a charter member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.
Albany, NY
David Griggs-Janower is founding conductor and Artistic Director of Albany Pro Musica, Albany, NY, and Director of Choral Music and Professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he has taught since 1981. Dr. Griggs-Janower did undergraduate and masters work in music theory and music history at Cornell University. He holds Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music where he studied with Dr. Julius Herford, Fiora Contino and Margaret Hillis. He has been on the faculties of Williams College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Skidmore College, the Oregon Bach Festival (under Helmuth Rilling) and the Aspen Music Festival Choral Institute. He has served as musical director and guest director for many area groups including the Berkshire Bach Society in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.


New York, NY
Peter Stanley Martin (M.M. Rutgers; B.S. Hofstra) finds himself participating in the music industry in a variety of ways – conductor, author, guest speaker, clinician, editor, adjudicator, and educator. A trademark of Mr. Martin’s musical personality is a true passion for American contemporary music and finding links between new and classic works of the repertoire. Currently Production Associate and Assistant Editor at G. Schirmer, Inc. & Associated Music Publishers, he collaborates daily with such contemporary masters as John Corigliano, Aaron Jay Kernis, Richard Danielpour, Yehudi Wyner, Mark Adamo, Joan Tower, and John Harbison on the creation, production, and performance of new works. For the past five years Mr. Martin has been part of the Board of Directors for the international conducting organization, Conductors Guild, as well as the editor of their quarterly newsletter, Podium Notes, and editor of The Journal of the Conductors Guild.
Laurinburg, NC
William McConnell is Music Program Coordinator, Director of Choirs and Associate Dean for Adult and Extended Programs at St. Andrews Presbyterian College. He is active as a conductor, collaborative pianist, choral adjudicator and singer. He has served as Artistic Director of Carolina Voices, a Charlotte, NC-based community choral organization. His experience extends to opera and musical theatre including engagements with the Gilbert Theatre and Light Opera Oklahoma. He has prepared choirs for such notable conductors as Erich Kunzel, Robert Porco, Kenneth Jean, and Keith Lockhart. He has held faculty appointments at Oklahoma State University, the University of Tulsa, and Oral Roberts University. He holds the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the MM in Choral Music Education from East Carolina University. He is an active member of ACDA, Chorus America, College Music Society, and MENC. He currently serves ACDA as National Repertoire & Standards Chair for College and University Choirs.


Notre Dame, IN
Nancy Menk holds the Mary Lou and Judd Leighton Chair in Music at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, where she is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. She holds the B.S. and the M.A. degrees in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the M.M. and the D.M.A. degrees in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her teachers have included Earl Rivers, Elmer Thomas, Helmuth Rilling, and Teri Murai. At Saint Mary's College, Dr. Menk conducts the Women's Choir and the Collegiate Choir, teaches conducting, and prepares the Madrigal Singers for the annual Christmas Madrigal Dinners. Under her direction, the Women’s Choir has performed at the American Choral Directors Association national convention in Los Angeles in February 2005, and has recorded four critically acclaimed compact discs of music for women’s voices on the ProOrgano label. Dr. Menk also teaches graduate conducting at the University of Notre Dame. She has conducted All-State Choirs in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania. In February 2010 she will make her fifth appearance conducting at Carnegie Hall.
Fresno, CA
Michael Ogdon holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Biola University, La Mirada, California and a Masters in Choral Conducting earned from San Jose State University. He was privileged to serve simultaneously as the graduate assistant to both Dr. Lauren Jakey's orchestra and Dr. Charlene Archibeque's choral program. Mr. Ogdon has spent twenty years in full time music ministry in churches ranging in size from five to five-thousand members. He has served as adjunct faculty at Fresno State University and was Chairman of Music and Fine Arts at Arizona Bible College in Phoenix. Mr. Ogdon recently returned to public and private school music education in Fresno, California. He now teaches elementary, junior high, and senior high choirs, bands and auditioned ensembles. Michael Ogdon is an accomplished arranger, composer, vocalist and performer on trumpet and keyboards.
Depot Bay, OR
Dr. Greg A Steinke is retired, former Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair of Music/Art and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon; Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); served as the National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (1988–97); currently Secty/Treas of Art Culture Nature, Inc. Composer of chamber and symphonic music and author with published/recorded works and performances across the U. S. and internationally; speaker on interdisciplinary arts, and oboist specializing in contemporary music. His most recent composition honors include: Finalist (of 4)- ‘01 Seoul International Composers Competition. Winner of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity Composition Competition, ‘02. Honorable Mention - ‘02 “Britten-on-the-Bay” Composition Competition Series XIII (Saxophone Quartet). Special Mention – ’03 USA International Harp Competition (Solo Harp). Finalist/Winner – ‘04 of COMA Open Score Project in England (Generic Quartet). Honorable Mention - ’05, VIII International Composition Competition of the Corfu Festival (Guitar). Co-winner of First Prize – ’08 2008 Areon Flutes International Chamber Music Competition (Flute Duet). Holder of 2009 Oregon Individual Artist Fellowship.


Philadelphia, PA
In January 2009 Jonathan Sternberg received The Conductors Guild's Award for Lifetime Service in recognition of long-standing service to the art and profession of conducting. Among the many orchestras with which he was affiliated as conductor during a long and distinguished career are the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Halifax Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Opera, Harkeness Ballet and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, London Philharmonic Orchestra, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris, and the orchestras of Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Basel, Brussels, Monte Carlo. For the Haydn Society, Sternberg made a series of pioneering recordings, initially of Haydn and Mozart, not least the ‘Nelson Mass’, ‘Posthorn’ Serenade and some dozen Haydn symphonies. Other recording premières under Sternberg included Schubert's Second Symphony, Rossini's Stabat mater, Prokofiev's Fifth Piano Concerto, Milhaud's Fantaisie Pastorale and Charles Ives's Set of Pieces. He is s also responsible for a number of world premières, including Rorem's Symphony No. 1.


Missoula, MT
Julia Vasquez, of Missoula, Montana, has played flute and piccolo in the Missoula Symphony for the past 23 years. Earlier she was piccoloist in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Symphony and taught at Cornell College. In 2000, she won the Convention Performers Competition and performed Gunther Schuller’s Concerto at the National Flute Association’s Columbus convention. She was also a winner in this competition in 2007 . She played in the Professional Flute Choir at conventions in Los Angeles and Boston, and was a guest soloist at the National Organ Convention in Chicago in 2006. Vasquez has performed extensively as a recitalist and soloist. She teaches flute privately and is principal flutist with the Missoula Children’s Theatre. She received flute performance degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and Northern IL University.