The International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) is thrilled to announce the winners of its 2024 Search for New Music Competition. The competition recognizes the accomplishments of IAWM member composers and fosters IAWM’s goal of increasing awareness of the musical contributions of women. IAWM hopes that performers around the world will see this as a resource for their own concert programming. This year we received 108 qualified and accepted submissions.

 

2024 Ruth Anderson Commission Prize ($1000)

Commission for a new sound installation with electroacoustic music.

Winner: Shabnan Jafarinasab Kermani, Iran/USA – Gisovān: Voicing a Revolution

Shabnam J. Kermani is a music composer, producer, engineer, and audiovisual artist from Tehran, Iran, residing in San Francisco, California. A 2022 Berklee College of Music Film Scoring graduate, she gained her Master’s degree in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation at Berklee València in 2023. Currently working as a professional composer, producer, and visual design artist, she has composed music for concert, and original scores for numerous short films in various styles of music and instrumental arrangements. Shabnam has formally studied Classical Piano for 17 years and composition for 6 years in Iran and the U.S. She has always been fascinated by the power of music as a storyteller that brings people of all backgrounds together. She aspires to bring a unique and innovative voice to the professional music industry as an artist, creator, and human who combines storytelling, technology, history, mythology, while highlighting the importance of compassion and resilience. https://www.shabnamjkermani.com/

Gisovān: Voicing a Revolution is an artistic reaction, reflection, and protest in response to the women-led revolution in Iran. The aim of this project is to bring sound, structure, and visuals together in an interactive installation that focuses on, and raises awareness of the on-going human rights events in Iran. With a touch-triggered mechanism, interaction is an essential feature of this installation as it encourages audience participation, invites them to learn the background and relevant information behind the global “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, and raises the voice of the Iranian people. This project features originally-composed melodic and harmonic vocal lines, exclusively sung by female singers. The audience can trigger the playback, and create their unique anthems; thus, joining the movement in their own way. Website for the work: https://shabnamjkermani.wixsite.com/gisovan  

2024 Christine Clark/Theodore Front Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Christine Clark of Theodore Front  Musical Literature, Inc., for a large chamber work (9+ instruments) and/or orchestral works; may  include works featuring soloists (vocal or instrumental).

Winner: Elizabeth J. Start, USA – Traces: Inspired by Strong Women 

Elizabeth Start has received numerous grants and commissions and over 500 performances of over 140 works. She is a member of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium, Musicians Club of Women, International Alliance of Women in Music, Kalamazoo Symphony (who commissioned a work from her for their 100th anniversary) and the Elgin IL Symphony; Executive Director of the Connecting Chords Music Festival (MI), and Secretary/Treasurer of the Kalamazoo Federation of Musicians. Her degrees include 2 bachelor’s from Oberlin in mathematics and cello, 2 master’s in cello and theory/composition from Northern Illinois University, and a PhD in composition from the University of Chicago.   

Traces: Inspired by Strong Women was commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the Kalamazoo Symphony, which was founded by Lita Snow, this work’s name can mean a “beaten path” and/or “evidence of what passed before”.  An archival recording exists of the October 2021 premiere. It evokes the strong women in all our lives, who draw people together in common cause (opening oboe line), are resourceful (the piece uses limited melodic material), and persevere (melody introduced by the clarinet and transformed throughout) despite obstructions (presented by brass and percussion) which are dealt with by “discussion”, evasive action, and finally broken through entirely, resolving all to the persevering melody. A final flurry, with a reminiscence of the initial oboe line, calls us to rally for a better future.

2024 Miriam Gideon Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Lucille Field Goodman, to a composer at least 50 years of age for a work for solo voice & 1-5 instruments.

Winner: Linda Dusman, USA – Triptych of Gossips

Linda Dusman composes in the sonic terrain between concert music and sound art, often contemplating the natural world and current politics as initiators for her work. She constructs her compositions as catalysts for listening experiences that create a heightened awareness of the moment. Terra Mycelia will be premiered by the Ruckus ensemble in October. Flashpoint for solo bass flute embodies wildfires both in forests and in political rhetoric. Infinite Transformations is a meditative sonic and bioart installation created with Foad Hamidi in 2023.

Dusman’s music is recorded on the NEUMA, Albany, New Focus, and Capstone labels. Her work has been awarded by the International Alliance for Women in Music, Meet the Composer, the Swiss Women’s Music Forum, the American Composers Forum, and the State of Maryland. Linda Dusman is currently Professor of Music at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in Baltimore, Maryland. Complete info at www.lindadusman.com.

I found Serena Hilsinger’s poem Triptych of Gossips compelling on many levels—the whimsy and rhythm of the “threes:” trios of women evoked in 3 sections of 3-lined stanzas of 3 syllables each; the recognition of how often women in threes satisfied some cultural or literary imperative; and the power attained by these groups who conjured, connived, and collaborated. This poem sat on my desk for many years, until finally I set it to music, as an homage to the 1970’s: a time of feminist optimism and, for musicians, a period of fascination with extended techniques. The work was completed during a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and recorded by the Duo della Luna on New Focus Records. Youtube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eROZ8kvC09Q.Video intro is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1OIp8O2Tyg

Honorable Mention: Katy Abbott, Australia – Splitting the Ambivalence

Katy Abbott’s work explores ‘connection’ and resonance with the intention of meaningfully impacting the daily lives of her audience. She’s especially curious about the audience–performer–composer dynamic. Her work looks at the macro (societal) human connection as well as the intimate (one-to-one connections within relationships, families, friendships, and connection to self).  As a musical master story-teller, Abbott’s compositions are performed, published and recorded around the world. She has five solo albums on ABC Classics and MOVE records and highly awarded for composition (including Paul Lowin Award for Composition (song-cycle) and a 2-year Fellowship with Australian Council for the Arts in 2018. An Educator and Mentor for 30 years, she has a holistic approach to her composing and Artist Mentoring. She is an Honorary Senior Fellow at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where she also was Senior Lecturer in Composition. Katy founded The Artists’ Mentor: Illuminate. Challenge. Change in 2020 which supports mid-career, established artists and arts leaders, across disciplines, to build long-term, vibrant practices with capacity and impact.  Katy is the 2024 Composer-In-Residence for The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  Composer and Artist Mentor, Dr Katy Abbott illuminates and inspires the heart of us. katyabbott.com

Splitting the Ambivalence in psychology terms is about polarizing positions between two separate entities (such as a couple, two countries for example) so that any question between them becomes an either / or scenario. This or That. There is no middle ground. When reading the words of Margaret Sutherland and noticing how she is often referred as feisty, strong-willed, a get-things-done kind of woman – I wondered about her other side – the side that isn’t so visible to the public and the public perception of Margaret versus what might be the ‘real’ Margaret.

Her writing, her letters, her music and the stories that accompany her life, paint an image of a woman unafraid to rattle the establishment, described often as “incensed” and “indignant” we are left with a sense of a woman who (somewhat admirably) took on the world and all of its irritations with great insouciance.  Entitled, opinionated and sedulous in putting angry pen to paper, criticizing where – in her less than humble opinion – critique was long overdue! But of more interest to me was the split – the underlying gentleness, the wistfulness, the delicacy, romanticism almost that also appears in her work and reflections. The image staring back in the mirror, the white against the black; ambivalence. It was tempting to only choose text which would portray her wonderful stubbornness and her forthright ideas, or stories that would delve into relationship dramas with colleagues and the ABC! Certainly, she cannot be genuinely captured without that insight but the gentle reminiscing and the soft-focus descriptions, in particular in her life as a child, offers completeness. I wonder at the moments when Margaret Sutherland superbly ‘belonged to herself’ and how that made the woman and the composer.  

2024 Libby Larsen Prize ($300)

Sponsored by Libby Larsen, to a composer who is currently enrolled in school for a work in any medium.

Winner: Janice Chia-Ying Shieh, Taiwan – Once a Sea

Originating from Taiwan, Chia-Ying (Janice) Shieh’s music connects with others through memories and reflects herself as a habitual transpacific traveler. Shieh received her bachelor’s degrees in composition and violin performance from the University of North Texas as students of Andrew May, Sungji Hong, Felix Olschofka, and Eunice Keem. Since August 2023, she has joined the College of Musical Arts at Bowling Green State University as a graduate teaching assistant while pursuing a MM composition degree. She has worked with Marilyn Shrude and Christopher Dietz and is currently an aural skills III/IV instructor. As a violinist, she performs frequently in symphony orchestra, new music, early music, sizhu ensembles, chamber music, and solo across Asia, Europe, and North America. Her recent performances are devoted to premiering works from emerging composers. She serves as the Treasurer at BGSU Praecepta New Music Student Organization. Her ongoing projects include explorations in ecomusicology, multispecies-ethnomusicology, and interactive live electroacoustics.

Written for flute/piccolo, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, Once a Sea (2023) re-imagines the land of a gorge that was once a sea. Through gestures of water lapping, swirling, swarming, falling, rippling, splashing, the ensemble weaves together texturally in layers. The shaping of a gorge mirrors my life journey from an islander transformed into a continent dweller. As the piece unfolds, the five instruments come along with combinations of colors and intensity to express energy bursts that shape into moments of dwelling. Once a sea, it is now a land where water continues to travel. Listen to the piece by visiting: https://on.soundcloud.com/s5AR6UTD3yJy4aF46 

2024 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize ($300)

Sponsored by Claire Chase, for works incorporating  innovative form or style, such as improvisation, multimedia, use of non-traditional notation, open instrumentation, or new performance practices.

Winner: Janice Misurell-Mitchell, USA – Resistant Noise

Janice Misurell-Mitchell, Chicago composer, flutist and vocal artist has taught at the DePaul School of Music, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and performed in the US, Europe, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine,Taiwan and China. For 25 years she was Co-Artistic Director and a performer for CUBE Contemporary Chamber Ensemble; she is now a member of the 6Degrees Composers. Recent commissions are from the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Ear Taxi Festival, and flutist Meerenai Shim. She has received awards and grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and residencies at the Ragdale Foundation. Her solo CDs, Vanishing Points, music for solo, duo, quartet and Uncommon Time, music for flute, voice and percussion, are on the Southport Records label. Other music of hers is available through MMC Recordings, OPUS ONE Recordings, Capstone Records, Arizona University Recordings and meerenai.com. Her numerous videos are available on Youtube. https://www.jmisurell-mitchell.com

Resistant Noise (2020) for vocal and instrumental ensemble and electronics, uses a text from Jacques Attali’s Bruits (Noise). His thesis is that noise (unwanted sound) represents people and forces in a society that are excluded from the mainstream culture, and that cultural change will be heralded by musical change. The piece is a musical representation of the conflicts and social forces in the US today. The text appears in various guises, from being a source for the transformation of words into sounds alone, to becoming a force for the dramatic involvement of the musicians themselves. The electronic soundtrack appears in twice, developing from abstract vocal patterns that gradually combine with political chants and well-known voices, partially understood, in protest movements, mainstream media, and protests from the past. The piece is dedicated to the memories of vocalist, Ann Ward; baritone Saalik Ziyad, and our son, filmmaker, artist and songwriter, Gabriel Mitchell.  

2024 Leah Reid Electroacoustic and Music Technology Prize ($400)

Sponsored by Leah Reid for works of any style and length utilizing music technology, including, but not limited to acousmatic works, electroacoustic pieces, electronic compositions, or pieces featuring electronic instruments. If no score is used, a description of the work should accompany the audio or video submission.

Winner: Melissa Hyatt Foss, USA – Palingenesis

Born in Guangdong, China, Zouning Anne Liao’s music draws inspiration from her fascination with nature and technology, blended with a constant curiosity about the playing capacity of instruments. She endeavors to incorporate unexpected and everyday sounds into her music. Her music has been performed in the United States, France, China, Spain, and England. In 2024, her work has been featured in festivals such as NoiseFloor in Portugal, MISE-EN Festival, Splice Institute, Cube Fest, IRCAM Forum Workshop, SEAMUS/Sweetwater at Charlottesville, and Performing Media Festival. Zouning recently completed her master’s degree with double majors in electronic music composition and music theory at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She also served as an Associate Instructor of Music Theory and taught written and aural theory at undergraduate level. She will start pursuing her PhD in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University in Fall 2024.

Hypothetical particles in physicals are particles that have not yet been proven to exist by observation. However, these phenomena are necessary for consistency within a given physical theory. In this piece, I explore the phenomenon through the interaction between light and sound particles. Amplitudes of the lights trigger changes in music, which reveal connections between the natural and synthetic sound worlds. The light instrument is a handmade digital photo controller consisting of 16 light-dependent resistors. This is a replication of light.void~, designed by recent IU alumnus Felipe Tovar-Henao based on Leafcutter John’s light thing. This piece is dedicated to Felipe Tovar- Henao, who is a good friend, an important mentor, and a crucial source of inspiration that motivated me to pursue music composition. Youtube link to the work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mEpXoKIBfGY  

2024 PatsyLu Prize ($500)

Sponsored by Patsy Rogers and Lucille Field Goodman, for new music works in any form or instrumentation by Black and underrepresented women.

Winner: Chia-Yu Hsu, Taiwan/USA – Dance Rhapsody