ASCAP, the performing rights organization that collects royalties for nearly half a million composers, songwriters and publishers, will present its annual Adventurous Programming awards to 18 American orchestras and one new-music festival on Tuesday. The prizes, which ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) established in 1947, are meant to encourage the programming of contemporary works. They will be awarded during the League of American Orchestras 68th National Conference, in St. Louis.
Four of the orchestral awards are specifically focused. The New York Philharmonic will receive the Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming; the Albany Symphony won the John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music; the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra will pick up the Morton Gould Award forInnovative Programming, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will take the award for American Programming on Foreign Tours.
The awards range from $400 to $3,000, depending on the orchestra’s budget and size, and whether it placed first, second or third in its category. The winners include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the San José Chamber Orchestra, the Lexington Symphony, the Michigan Philharmonic and the New England Philharmonic. Two student orchestras - the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra and the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio - also won prizes, as did the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
This is the second batch of adventurous programming awards that ASCAP has presented this year: in January, the organization presented prizes for chamber music programming to eight organizatio! ns.
