Bobby Ge, JP Merz, and Karalyn Schubring Recognized with Special Distinction
NEW YORK Feb. 17, 2022 — Paul Williams, President of The ASCAP Foundation, is pleased to announce that Patrick Holcombis named recipient of the 42nd ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize. The prize is awarded for Persephone, a seven and a half-minute work for orchestra. Selected by a panel of conductors, Holcomb is awarded a prize of $5,000.
Patrick Holcomb is a composer who seeks to write music that is both intellectually and emotionally engaging.
Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Holcomb is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Rochester Eastman School of Music as a recipient of the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull University Fellowship. His compositional honors include a 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, a 2021 American Prize in Composition, a 2020 BMI Student Composer Award, the 2019/2021 Jon Vickers Film Scoring Award, and the 2019 Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Award, among others. He has attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival (as a composition teaching assistant) and Connecticut Summerfest.
Holcomb completed his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College, from which he graduated top of his class in the School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. He also earned a Master of Music in Composition and a Master of Music in Music Scoring for Visual Media from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2021. At the Jacobs School, Holcomb served as an associate instructor of music theory and the composition department graduate assistant, the assistant director of the New Music Ensemble and co-coordinator of music composition.
As the ethnomusicology lab assistant at Ithaca College, Holcomb also studied Hindustani (North Indian) music and performed tabla and Indian harmonium under the guidance of Denise Nuttall (a student of Zakir Hussain), and cites this as one of his largest compositional influences. For more information, visit: http://patrickholcombcomposer.com
The jury also awarded Special Distinction to Bobby Ge for Metastable State, JP Merz for gun, fire, and Karalyn Schubring for Piano Concerto No.1. For more information visit: https://www.bobbygemusic.com, http://www.jpmerz.com, https://www.karalynschubring.com/about
Dr. Rudolf Nissim, former head of ASCAP’s International Department and a devoted friend of contemporary composers, established this prize through a bequest to The ASCAP Foundation. The prize is presented to an ASCAP concert composer for a work requiring a conductor that has not been performed professionally. A jury of three conductors selects the winning score.
The judges for this year’s Nissim Prize were: Peter Askim, Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University; Teresa Cheung, distinguished conductor for colleges and universities, All State/All County orchestra festivals and former Music Director of Pennsylvania’s Altoona Symphony Orchestra; and Julius P. Williams, President of the International Conductors Guild, Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music, Artistic Director/Conductor Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra (Boston), and Conductor of Trilogy Opera Company.
About The ASCAP Foundation
Founded in 1975, The ASCAP Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development programs. Included in these are songwriting workshops, grants, scholarships, awards, recognition and community outreach programs. The ASCAP Foundation is supported by contributions from ASCAP members and from music lovers throughout the United States. www.ascapfoundation.org
Patrick Holcomb
Duration: Seven and a half minutes
Instrumentation: Full orchestra
2 flutes (2nd doubling alto flute)
2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn)
2 Bb clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet)
2 bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon)
4 horns
2 C trumpets
Trombone
Bass trombone
Tuba
Timpani (requires a suspended cymbal to be placed on the timpani)
Percussion 1:
Glockenspiel, medium-sized woodblock, 4 metal mixing bowls (of different medium and large sizes, preferably suspended for
maximum resonance), vibraphone, snare drum, bongos, two low toms
Percussion 2:
Crotales (two octaves), suspended cymbal, bass drum (large and very resonant), sizzle cymbal, temple blocks, brake drum, kick
drum
Harp
Piano (doubling celesta)
Strings
Bb clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet)
Program Note:
Persephone (2019) is a reinterpretation of the Greek myth of Persephone, the goddess who was abducted by Hades and subsequently forced to spend a portion of each year with him in the underworld. The work was born out of my attempt to imagine Persephone seeing her reflection in each of the six rivers visible from the underworld on her annual journey into Hades.
The piece begins on the shore of the Oceanus, the river-sea that separates the worlds of the living and the dead. Persephone (represented here by the alto flute and the bassoon) cries out in anguish as she awaits her return to the underworld for the coming months. The towering but distant voice of her mother, the powerful goddess Demeter (represented here by the oboe and the bass clarinet), echoes Persephone’s distress back to her.
As the goddesses’ voices become increasingly hysterical, Hades (represented here by the horn and the trombone) emerges from the earth, seizing Persephone and taking her in his chariot over the Oceanus and into the underworld. As they fly over the Acheron, the river of pain that marks the entrance of the underworld, Persephone sees the reflections of her and her captor distorted by the ripples caused by the oars of the ferryman Charon.
The Phlegethon, the river of fire, is patrolled on both sides by centaurs who prevent the shades of the wicked from escaping the water; Persephone’s reflection stands alongside the ghosts imprisoned in the river. She sees her face contorted by rage in the turbulent waters of the Styx, the river of hatred that wraps around the underworld seven times.
The dead who do not receive a proper burial spend eternity on the banks of the Cocytus, the river of wailing; similarly trapped, Persephone sees her reflection mingled with these ghosts and hears her voice echoed in their cries. The Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, passes by the cave of the sleep god Hypnos; in this river, Persephone watches herself surrender to sleep, accepting that she can do nothing to change her fate.