Aaron Jay Kernis, one of America's most honored and frequently-performed composers, has just been named recipient of two important honors. The American Classical Music Hall of Fame has selected Kernis as one of its 2013 inductees, and the Delaware Symphony has selected him for its A.I. duPont Composers Award this year. The American Classical Music Hall of Fame will induct Kernis in a ceremony immediately prior to St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's World Premiere performance of his new Viola Concerto, for Paul Neubauer, on Thursday evening, April 24th. Other Hall of Fame inductees joining Kernis this year are pianist Andre Watts, the Guarneri Quartet, American Guild of Organists, and noted educator-conductor Weston Noble. Kernis and the other inductees were selected through a rigorous process involving nominations and voting by the organization's National Artistic Council, Board of Directors, Inductee Selection Committee, and Professional Organization Advisory Council. The A.I duPont Award, established in 1985, recognizes a distinguished living American composer or conductor who has contributed significantly to contemporary classical music. Kernis will accept the $5,000 award at the Delaware Symphony's final chamber concert of this season on Tuesday evening, April 1, which features Kernis' Musica Celestis. Kernis' two new honors take their places among a long list of impressive awards, including the 2012 Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, his 2011 induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and the 1998 Pulitzer Prize. His richly-varied music has been commissioned by major cultural organizations and artists, including sopranos Renee Fleming and Dawn Upshaw, violinists Joshua Bell and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, guitarist Sharon Isbin, pianist Emanuel Ax, the Walt Disney Company, Rose Center for Earth and Space at New York's Museum of Natural History, and most of America's leading orchestras. His work is extensively heard on the Nonesuch, New Albion, Koch, Naxos, Dorian, Virgin Classics, and Cedille labels. More about Aaron Kernis here High resolution photos available upon request |
