Not to be confused with The American Prize, a Library of Congress Literacy Award managed by the
Center for the Book .
The American Prize is a set of annual nonprofit national competitions in the performing arts which recognizes and rewards commercial and noncommercial recorded performances of classical music in the United States based on submitted applications. There is no live competition.[ 1] The award is bestowed at professional, college/university, community, and high school levels in a number of areas including composition, piano, voice, chamber music, conducting, and ensemble performance.[ 2] [ 3] The jury consists of well known performing artists in each area, with the conductor and composer David Katz serving as chief judge.[ 4] [ 5] [ 6] [ 7] [ 8] [ 9] [ 10]
Artists and ensembles self-nominate through an application process or are nominated by a teacher, parent, board member or colleague.[ 11] Evaluation is a key component of the competition; applicants who reach finalist status or higher receive a written evaluation from a member of the judging panel. Among judges are composer Judith Lang Zaimont , pianist Jeffrey Biegel , and Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet .[ 12] Winners of each category receive a cash award.
Winners of the first prize award by year in all professional categories.[ 13]
Orchestra
Choral
Chamber Music
Band
Opera / Theater / Film / Dance
2011
Jesse Ayers
Ted Vives
not awarded
not awarded
not awarded
2012
Michael Gatonska
Brian Holmes
not awarded
not awarded
not awarded
2013
Alessandra Salvati
Jonathan Santore
Michael Deak
Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn
not awarded
2014
Gregg Wramage
Dominick DiOrio
Piotr Szewczyk
Laurence Bitensky
Todd Goodman
2015
Angelique Poteat
Travis Alford
tie: David Garner /
Judith Lang Zaimont
David Avshalomov
Yiguo Yan
2016
Jennifer Bellor
Lansing McLoskey
Justin Dello Joio
Miguel Roig-Francolí
Justin Dello Joio
2017
Brian Ciach
(pending)
instrumental: Ching-chu Hu /
choral: (pending)
Robert Denham
Jocelyn Hagen
2019
Nilo Alcala
Eric W. Sawyer
2019-20
Tyler Goodrich White
major works : John Muehleisen /
shorter works : Donald Skirvin
instrumental : Jakub Polaczyk /
vocal: William Vollinger
Shawn Okpebholo
Zach Redler
Solo
Concerto
2011
Lin-Yu Wang
not awarded
2012
Nathanael May
Sarah S. Chan
2013
Petronel Malan
Anthony Michael Cornet
2014
Nassib Nassar
Kasandra Keeling
2015
Michael Angelucci
Bill John Newbrough
2016
Jeremy Samolesky
Thomas Yee
2017
Roberto Plano
Richard Bosworth
2019-20
Lei Weng
Anna Dmytrenko
College/university prize winners[ edit ]
Winners of the first prize award by year in college/university categories.[ 13]
Orchestra
Choral
Chamber Music
Band
Opera / Theater / Film / Dance
2013
Roberto Kalb
Joshua Fishbein
not awarded
not awarded
not awarded
2014
Texu Kim
Saunder Choi
Rodrigo Bussad
not awarded
not awarded
2015
Patrick O’Malley
Kyle Randall
Derek David
not awarded
not awarded
2016
Jihyun Kim
Matthew Recio
Lara Poe
Derek Jenkins
Georgi Dimitrov (student division)
2017
Antonio Juan Marcos
(pending)
instrumental: Olga Amelkina-Vera /
choral: (pending)
Tyler Bouque
Michele Cheng
2023
(pending)
Frank Duarte
(pending)
(pending)
(pending)
Opera / Operetta (women)
Opera / Operetta (men)
Art Song / Oratorio (women)
Art Song / Oratorio (men)
2015
Sarah Bauer
Galeano Salas
Paulina Nastasha Yeung
not awarded
2016
Natalie Logan
Quinn Bernegger
Samantha Schmid
Quinn Bernegger
2017
tie: Sarah Cooper / Kellie Motter
Ben M. Reisinger
Lauren Elizabeth Walker
David John Davani
Orchestral performance
Conducting
2010
Texas Chamber Group Orchestra
Ricardo Averbach, Oxford Chamber Orchestra
2011
University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Kiesler , University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra
2012
University of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra
Gemma New, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
2013
not awarded
not awarded
2014
St. Olaf Orchestra
not awarded
2015
Baylor Symphony Orchestra
Boon Hua Lien, Eastman Philharmonia
Winners of the first prize award by year in community categories.[ 13]
^ "The American Prize rewards the best-recorded performances by individual artists and ensembles in the U.S." MidlandsBiz , Columbia, SC, October 8, 2014.
^ Eiseman, Lee. "National Prize Recognizes Local Composer." The Boston Musical Intelligencer , September 24, 2014.
^ "Michael Angelucci Wins the American Prize in Piano ," The Peabody Post , November 16, 2015.
^ Lewis, John. "Tom Hall & Choral Arts Win American Prize Awards." Baltimore , October 22, 2014.
^ "UNLV Opera director wins American Prize." Las Vegas Review-Journal , October 21, 2014.
^ "Tara Curtis places second in The American Prize in Voice." KCMetropolis , Kansas City, KS, September 16, 2014.
^ "Nashville composer Daniel Elder shines in the American Prize." ArtsNash , Nashville, TN, September 26, 2014.
^ "Crane director wins 'The American Prize in Opera Performance' for Menotti's opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors." North Country Now , Potsdam, NY, January 2, 2013.
^ "SSYO Places Third Nationally in the American Prize Competition." Saratoga Today , Saratoga Springs, NY, October 18, 2013.
^ "Composer Michael Gatonska Awarded The American Prize in Composition." June 11, 2012, www.ascap.com , accessed November 1, 2022
^ "FAQs" . www.theamericanprize.org . Retrieved Sep 11, 2019 .
^ "Judges 2017-18" . www.theamericanprize.org . Retrieved 2018-04-15 .
^ a b c "The American Prize" . theamericanprize.blogspot.com . Retrieved 2018-04-15 .