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Jazz at Lincoln Center
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New York, NY 10023
www.jazzatlincolncenter.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12/11/03

For More Information, Please Contact:
Sedgwick Clark, 212-595-9710

MUSICAL AMERICA INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY
ANNOUNCES 2004 HONOREES OF THE YEAR

Wynton Marsalis, George Crumb, Joseph Flummerfelt, Susan Graham,
and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Honored in Reception at Birdland

NEW YORK, December 11 — The Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts honored its 2004 Award recipients at a ceremony held today at the popular midtown jazz club Birdland. The top honor of Musician of the Year went to Wynton Marsalis, a master of both jazz and classical repertoire and winner of innumerable awards as trumpeter and composer. Other winners are George Crumb, Composer of the Year; Joseph Flummerfelt, Conductor of the Year; Susan Graham, Vocalist of the Year; Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble of the Year.

Musical America established its Musician of the Year award in 1960, recognizing many of the foremost artists of our time. Among those honored have been Leonard Bernstein (1960 and 1989), Vladimir Horowitz (1965), Beverly Sills (1970), George Balanchine (1973), Rudolf Serkin (1979), Isaac Stern (1986), Kurt Masur (1993), Marilyn Horne (1995), Martha Argerich (2001), Simon Rattle (2002), and Kronos Quartet (2003). In 2000, in a departure from its four-decade tradition of featuring a Musician of the Year on its cover, Musical America honored Carnegie Hall, designating it the Concert Hall of the Century.

The four categories of composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and vocalist were added in 1992 due to the expansion of the classical-music community in the intervening years. Ensemble, accompanist, and educator awards were subsequently established. The annual Musical America Directory, just published, profiles the 2004 winners in articles written by distinguished critics and commentators on the contemporary music scene.

Musician of the Year: Wynton Marsalis

"Jazz has never had another hero like Wynton Marsalis," writes critic Howard Mandel in his Musical America tribute to the superstar Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy Award-winning composer and trumpeter. Marsalis is co-founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) as well as the driving force in the creation of the organization's new home in the Time Warner Building on New York's Columbus Circle, due to open in October 2004.   In addition to leading a barnstorming septet and the globetrotting Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (LCJO), he is one of today's most respected teachers and spokesmen for music education.

Born near New Orleans in 1961, Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12 and gained experience as a young musician in local marching bands, jazz and funk bands, and classical youth orchestras. He entered The Juilliard School in 1979 and soon became recognized as the most impressive trumpeter at the conservatory. He is now on Juilliard's faculty, in Jazz Studies, and the Board of Trustees. He made his recording debut in 1982, and over the past two decades produced nearly 40 jazz and classical recordings for Columbia Jazz and Sony Classical, winning nine Grammy Awards. His recordings include recitals of music by such jazz greats as Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk and a seven-CD set of live Village Vanguard gigs with his septet. There are his acclaimed readings of Baroque and Classical brass staples by Hummel, Purcell, Haydn, and Bach, among others, and several classical and jazz crossover discs. In 2003, Marsalis signed with EMI's Blue Note Records, with his initial recording due out in spring 2004.

Marsalis also devotes a significant amount of time to composing new works, many of which are commissioned from and premiered by JALC. He has written ballets for choreography by Twyla Tharp (Jump Start), Garth Fagan (Citi Movement/Griot New York), the New York City Ballet (Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements and Them Twos), and Judith Jamison for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Sweet Release). His 1994 oratorio Blood on the Fields was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1997, the first to a jazz artist. For the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center he composed a string quartet (At the Octoroon Balls) and, taking off from Stravinsky, A Fiddler's Tale. His most recent work, All Rise (1999), is an evening-length, twelve-part composition commissioned by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic. Marsalis and LCJO were among Masur's favorite collaborators during his tenure as music director. All of these Marsalis compositions were recorded for Columbia Jazz or Sony Classical.

Music education has found an extraordinary spokesman in Wynton Marsalis, who has received more than a dozen honorary doctorates from colleges and universities. Through JALC education programs, he conducts master classes, lectures, and concerts for students of all ages and created the Essentially Ellington high school jazz band competition and festival and the newly published Jazz for Young People Curriculum. He was featured in the PBS television production of Marsalis on Music and the NPR series Making the Music , which won a Peabody Award in 1996. In addition, he was named one of "America's 25 Most Influential People" by Time magazine and one of "The 50 Most Influential Boomers" by Life magazine in recognition of his role in stimulating greater awareness of jazz in the consciousness of an entire generation of jazz fans and artists. In March 2001, Marsalis was awarded the United Nations designation of "Messenger of Peace" by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and in June 2002 he received the Congressional "Horizon Award."

Composer of the Year: George Crumb

The West Virginian composer George Crumb celebrates his 75th-birthday year in 2004 with concerts, residencies, and master classes around the country. For over 40 years he has conjured unique sound worlds that delve hauntingly into human emotions—of man's connection to the natural world, the importance of ritual, the anguish of conflict. In the 1960s and 1970s, Crumb produced a series of highly successful works that earned him numerous international performances, recordings, and awards. Among them: Echoes of Time and the River (1968, Pulitzer Prize), Ancient Voices of Children (1970), Black Angels (1970), Vox Balaenae (1971), and Star-Child (1977, Grammy Award in 2000). Recent works include Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik (2001), ...Unto the Hills and Otherworldly Resonances (2002), and A Journey Beyond Time (2003). Just released this month is the seventh volume in Bridge Records' ongoing series of Crumb's complete works, supervised by the composer.

Conductor of the Year: Joseph Flummerfelt

Joseph Flummerfelt is recognized as the foremost choral conductor of our time. For over three decades he has served as artistic director and principal conductor of Westminster Choir of Rider University, the chorus of choice for the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra as well as many visiting European orchestras. He also is director of choral activities at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and founder and director of the New York Choral Artists. Moreover, he has been guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the orchestra of the Spoleto Festival in the United States and Italy. His choirs may be heard on more than 45 recordings. In the words of New York Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel, "Conducting a Flummerfelt-prepared chorus is like driving a Rolls just back from the only honest garage in town."

Vocalist of the Year: Susan Graham

One of the most sought-after singers of our time, Susan Graham is celebrated worldwide for the lustrous timbre of her voice, the enchanting allure of her stage presence, and the fervent emotion that infuses her varied repertoire. Last April, critics honed their accolades to praise her long-awaited Carnegie Hall debut, and an expanded schedule of song recitals next year takes her to leading capitals of the world. Her upcoming operatic engagements include the title role in Lehár's The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera, The Composer in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at London's Covent Garden, and Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Chicago Lyric Opera. Recent recordings include a disc of songs by Ned Rorem, Handel's Alcina with her frequent collaborator Renée Fleming, and her Carnegie Hall debut, all on the Erato label; a CD of music by Charles Ives, with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, is due in the spring.

Ensemble of the Year: Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, writes critic Joshua Kosman, "has carved out a niche as the nation's liveliest and most dexterous purveyor of period performances." The 23-year-old ensemble currently plays as many as 50 concerts annually in the San Francisco and Bay Area throughout California. Under Music Director Nicholas McGegan it branched out from its home base to perform at the 2002 and 2003 Mostly Mozart Festivals in New York and the 2002 International Handel Festival in Göttingen, Germany. Favorite collaborators include the Mark Morris Dance Group, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and countertenors David Daniels and Andreas Scholl. A recent addition to its extensive discography is the only full-length recording of Handel's Partenope .

The Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts has been long considered the bible of the music business. This year's edition contains comprehensive listings, artist managers' reports, and overviews on 2003 milestones in the international performing arts world. In addition, George Loomis covers the coming of age of St. Petersburg's Stars of the White Nights Festival, which was expanded last summer to an unprecedented three months in honor of the city's 300th anniversary. Also, two ongoing features make their debut: A cornucopia of young stars of tomorrow are singled out by critic Harris Goldsmith, and a column called "Trends," written by music-industry notables, sheds new light on contemporary concerns.

An integral part of Musical America is its award-winning Web site, MusicalAmerica.com. Launched in December 1998, it quickly became the leading subscription Web site for the classical-music industry. Updated every morning, Monday through Friday, its daily industry news postings are contributed by correspondents in Paris, Berlin, London, St. Petersburg, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. It also provides daily links to breaking news published by other international outlets. The site contains many of the listings in the Musical America Directory and is an indispensable tool for keeping up with the industry. MusicalAmerica.com's more than 1,700,000 hits per month testify to its authority in the field, and its subscriber base includes conductors, critics, performers, managers, and educators.

The Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts and MusicalAmerica.com are owned by Commonwealth Business Media, Inc., a leading publisher of directories, magazines, and Web sites in the transportation, international trade, classical music, and commercial credit markets including The Journal of Commerce , Port Import Export Reporting Service (PIERS), Traffic World , Air Cargo World , The Pocket List of Railroad Officials , The Transportation Telephone Tickler , Pacific Shipper , Shipping Digest , The Florida Shipper , Gulf Shipper , Canadian Sailings , Official Export Guide , U.S. Custom House Guide , Musical America , and others. Commonwealth is headquartered in East Windsor, New Jersey, with offices in Newark, San Francisco, Long Beach, Atlanta, Montreal, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Miami, Houston, Mexico City, and London. For more information on Commonwealth Business Media, Inc. and the products they offer, visit www.cbizmedia.com or call 800-221-5488.

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