UT Symphony Orchestra named 2023 winner of The American Prize in Orchestral Performance
Founded in 2010, The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the performing arts. The American Prize is designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, directors, ensembles and composers in the United States at professional, college/university, community and high school levels, based on submitted recordings.
“It’s an evaluation and contest platform,” James Fellenbaum, UTSO music director and conductor, explained to Arts Knoxville, “that many orchestras, composers, conductors, etc. have entered to aid in promotion of their work, and to gain recognition for their successes. As another example: last fall 2022, Alex Lapins performed Todd Goodman’s Tuba Concerto 2 with the UTSO, and that work (in its original tuba and piano version) is a candidate/finalist in the composition category for The American Prize.”
UTSO is one of the most prominent collegiate orchestral ensembles in the state of Tennessee. The UTSO presents several performances each academic year, performing repertoire that spans from the Baroque era to the present, featuring faculty soloists as well as national and international guest artists. Their performances placed them ahead of several notable universities in this year’s awardee line-up.
Read more about The American Prize and the awardees on the organization’s blogspot.